The Fight Against Catastrophe
by Angel Sentier
Summary: After the SailorStars arc, new senshi arrive to help battle the father of Chaos; Catastrophe. Senshi and crystals from everywhere, a good guy gets brainwashed, a long lost sibling! Tons of romance and angsty goodness! This story has it all! Please R&R!
1. Introducing Self Promotion

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora - The Fight Against Catastrophe"

By M'Lila Cronk and Angel Sentier

Chapter One

Somewhere far off in the Galaxy Cauldron, in a beautiful field full of blossoming butter-yellow flowers, a young woman in a pastel yellow dress with long, flowing golden locks stood alone. She was smiling gently at something which glowed pink in her hands.

In a soft voice she spoke, "Please, dear friend, come back."

She lifted her hands and the pink rose into the air, transforming into a butterfly. It fluttered about the flowers for a while before the young woman spoke again. "Aren't you ever going to forgive me?"

The butterfly's form shimmered then turned into a pink crystal which glowed for a second then disappeared. The next moment, another young woman appeared in a flurry of silver sparkles. Her long hair which nearly brushed the backs of her knees appeared brown, but the sunlight picked out bright hints of red and gold, her eyes were a lovely blue-green, and white wings protruded from the back of her silver and white sailor fuku. This was Sailor Angel.

"Of course I forgive you, Galaxia," she said. "I know it wasn't really you who took my starseed."

"My friend," smiled Galaxia. "Always polite and forgiving. How I've missed you."

"I've missed you too. How did you ever escape the clutches of Chaos?"

Galaxia smiled and looked up into the light blue sky. "I was saved. By a girl made of love and light, Sailor Moon. She is the true Light of Hope and she saved us all with it." She looked back down at Sailor Angel, her expression now turned serious. "This is another reason why I specifically found your starseed, Angel. Chaos has gone back to where it belongs, but now a larger evil is coming to take its place; I can feel it."

She looked at the horizon, shivered, and then continued. "The Starlights have returned to the stars and the remaining ten Sailor Scouts will not be enough to combat this evil."

"You wish for me to help them?" asked Angel.

Galaxia shook her head. "Even with your power it will not be enough."

Angel was taken aback. "What is this evil?"

She looked at her friend, her expression gone dark. "It is the father of Chaos and all evil, Catastrophe."

Angel gasped. "I thought we locked it inside Nobulous, many galaxies away, years ago."

"We did, but what we failed to realize was that it could slowly eat the planet away, from the inside. It took it over, ravaged its people and ultimately destroyed it. From its position over Nobulous, it could see the Light of Hope shining in the universe and the purity that galaxy held."

"And Catastrophe feeds on purity," remembered Angel.

"Exactly. It is approaching there, and soon, and the Sailor Scouts need to be informed so that they can be ready when it appears."

"But you said that even with my help, it will not be enough."

"It won't, that's why I want you to stop at the Veidan galaxy on your way to the Milky Way."

Angel smiled, Galaxia's plan coming together in her mind. "Sailor Phosphora!"

Galaxia nodded. "She's strong enough to more than help. I'd ask you to gather the other Starlights or the protectorates, but they've just returned to their own stars and galaxies. I think they're entitled to a little rest. I'd come with you, but since I am now the Guardian of the Starseeds, I have so much work to do."

Angel nodded. "If you leave your post, the Starseeds might get lost, but don't worry. I can take care of this. I won't fail you."

"I know. You never have."

The two friends embraced each other. They knew it would be a while before they got to see each other again.

"I'll miss you," said Sailor Angel. "It seems like I just returned and now I have to go away again."

"That's because you have!"

They laughed together before looking sadly at each other. "I... I may not come back," said Angel, somewhat nervously.

Galaxia shook her head. "Don't say that, I have faith in you and the other Sailors. Of course you'll come back."

Angel smiled. "Since you're usually right, I'll believe you."

Galaxia raised an eyebrow. "Since you forgave me, I'm going to let the implications in that statement slide. Now, you've got to go. Every delayed second brings Catastrophe closer to Earth."

The girls embraced each other one last time before Sailor Angel stretched her wings and flew into the pale blue sky, finally disappearing altogether.

Galaxia's arm was still raised in farewell. "Good-bye, my friend. Take care."

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Meanwhile, on Earth, Usagi was sharing a peaceful moment with Mamoru. Sitting on a quiet bench in the park, they watched the sun go down, turning the horizon shades of gold, red, and pink. She sighed and snuggled closer into his embrace.

'I love being with Mamo-chan. I feel so safe in his embrace,' she thought contentedly.

"Isn't the sunset beautiful, Mamo-chan?" she asked him softly, almost afraid to break the calm.

He looked down at the odango headed girl next to him and smiled. "Yes," he said, his eyes only for her. "Almost as beautiful as you."

Usagi buried her head more into Mamoru's chest at his compliment as she blushed furiously.

Mamoru looked down at his adorable Odango before a violent shiver surged through his body and he sat up straight. The feeling he had felt left as suddenly as it had come. He placed a hand to his head. 'What the heck was that?' he thought.

"Mamo-chan? What's wrong?" Usagi asked, turning to him in concern.

"I... don't know. I felt something... something bad. Like something's about to happen."

Her brow furrowed. "Something bad's about to happen? That's impossible! The Sailor Wars and everything are over!"

"I don't know, Usako, I just know that I felt something just now, and it wasn't good."

While Usagi babbled about how this couldn't be happening, Mamoru continued to think to himself. 'The Earth must be in danger, otherwise Usako would have felt the presence too. I've got to be on my guard for whatever's coming.'

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Sailor Angel was still en route to the Veidan Galaxy to meet another one of her old friends, Princess Zara. She hadn't seen her since they were children and everything had been peaceful in the galaxy. She had just landed on the planet and was approaching the castle when a guard stopped her at the gate.

"State your business," he commanded in a gruff tone.

"I am here to see Princess Zara," Sailor Angel supplied in a regal voice. "I am Sailor Angel, also Princess Celeste, ruler of the sky."

The guard made a brief bow of respect to the princess before turning to his intercom to inform the palace of Sailor Angel's arrival. He said a few words into the two-way speaker before smiling and turning back to Sailor Angel. His gruff voice was now replaced with a friendlier one.

"You are welcome your highness, welcome to the Veidan Galaxy. Someone will be here shortly to escort you to the palace."

"Thank you," Sailor Angel said, flexing her wings to relax them.

She was then escorted by another guard into the palace, through several large hallways filled with old paintings and fine gold and black-gold tapestries, until she was told to wait in another large room with golden chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and finely decorated furniture that was a light pink color with carefully stitched black embroidery on the ends.

'It would probably be more appropriate for me to be wearing something a little more uncomfortable,' she thought with a grimace. So she took a moment to raise her star wand over her head and whispered, "Sky Princess Configuration." She was enveloped in a warm white light and suddenly her sailor fuku was replaced by a full length satin gown of pure white.

She had only been waiting for a few moments when the door on the other side of the room opened to reveal two guards with a bored looking princess standing between them. Her green eyes were gazing this way and that, with an air that said that she had seen all this before and desperately needed diversion, her long red hair brushed the ground and looked almost as depressed as the princess herself, her pink silken dress with the crest of the Veidan Galaxy looked as uncomfortable as it surely felt. The princess, once realizing she had entered the room, looked up and a bright smile lit her face up like a star in the night sky. She looked at her two 'bodyguards,' gave a brief snort and rolled her eyes.

Sailor Angel, now Princess Celeste, hid a small giggle at Zara's obvious displeasure of having two bodyguards around, but then she figured that she wouldn't like it that much either.

Overriding the urge to scream at the top of her lungs and run over to her old friend she calmly stated, "Well, long time no see Zara, how have you been?"

Understanding what Celeste was doing she, in an equally calm voice, stated, "My kingdom and I have been well, thank you. Ever since we were returned to our home by Galaxia, everything has been going smoothly." She then turned on her heels to her guards and said quite forcefully, "I am fine, you don't have to follow me around wherever I go! SHEESH! You'd think that a PRINCESS and a SAILOR SENSHI could talk to her best friend that she has not seen in FOREVER with a little privacy!!!"

Celeste watched the hilarious scene in front of her and couldn't hold back any longer. She burst out laughing.

Zara turned to her friend and instantly was thoroughly ticked off! And of course, whenever she would get mad, who would she take it out on?

"Okay, that's it. GET OUT!" she yelled at the guards. "Get out right now before I do some real damage!"

The guards, recognizing that tone of voice and not wanting to go through another one of the princess' temper tantrums, instantly vacated the room as quickly as possible.

"Now where were we?" Zara asked, all traces of anger leaving her face in a flash. "Oh, yeah!"

"AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" They both screamed as the two friends ran towards each other and embraced for the first time in a long while.

Both laughing at their immature antics, they pulled apart and smiled at one another. "I haven't seen you in ages!" cried Zara. "Where have you been?"

"Floating in oblivion as a Starseed, how about you?" replied Celeste.

"Same here! What a coincidence!"

And they both started laughing all over again.

"Time really flies when you're floating in nothingness, doesn't it?" asked Zara.

"No comment. It was NOT a happy time for me."

"I know what you mean. There were NO other cute Starseeds around."

Celeste rolled her eyes. "So, what's with all the bodyguards?"

"Oh, Daddy's been overprotective ever since he realized that I actually have curves to my figure. He's driving me crazy! I would do anything to get out of here right now!"

"Well... That's actually why I'm here," said Celeste. "Galaxia has informed me of a new evil approaching the Milky way, to the planet Earth. It is even stronger than Chaos and it will take all of our power to combat it."

Zara looked at her friend with a stunned expression. "So what you're telling me is that you're going to drag me all the way to Earth to save a bunch of people I have never met from the strongest force in the Galaxy?"

"Yeah, that's about covers it."

She did an impromptu victory dance while screaming. "Halleluia! I'm getting out of here! Finally some real action!"

"Well, gee, Zara, could you show some enthusiasm?" Celeste asked sarcastically.

"When do we leave?"

"Well, I do believe you have an entire galaxy to inform."

She snapped her fingers. "Rats. Daddy's going to have a fit... again."

"Simply tell him it's for the good of the galaxy."

"Yeah, like that's ever worked."

She held up a hand. "I'm not finished. Then put a spell on him."

Zara's face lit up with realization. "Oh, yeah! I can do that, can't I?"

Celeste laughed and smiled. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," Zara laughed back.

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Mamoru was walking to the Hikawa Shrine to see Rei about the strange feeling he had the other day. As he got closer, he thought maybe this wasn't such a good idea. 'Maybe Usako was right and it was just indigestion,' he thought. 'I don't want to worry the Scouts... And I don't want to face the Fire Warrior's wrath for making her sit at the fire for nothing.'

But he figured it was worth a shot. If there was something out there, they should be prepared.

As he entered, he saw Rei in the courtyard doing her usual chores and sweeping up the cherry blossoms. Just then, Rei looked up and saw him. 'Well, no turning back now,' he thought.

"Hello, Rei-chan. How have you been?"

"Hello, Mamoru-san. I'm fine? What are you doing here?" She knew that he wouldn't come down here unless it was important. 'Not to mention leave his precious little bunny alone for more than two seconds,' she thought with disgust.

"Well, I had a weird feeling yesterday and I wanted to know if we should worry about it."

Rei dropped her broom; a flash of worry crossed her eyes at the idea of having to fight again. "Come in. I'll do a fire reading."

"Thank you."

And they both went inside the temple.

Mamoru sat down on one of the floor mats as Rei kneeled in front of the fire. Looking deep into the fire, she called out to it.

"Great fire, tell me who it is that is disturbing our peaceful time. Tell me that we may fight against it."

The fire sprang up and became immense in size, making Rei begin to sweat from the heat and concentration. An image began to come through, when unexpectedly, the fire went out. Rei looked up, shocked. "What's going on? This shouldn't happen, the fire hardly ever blows out."

"Should we be worried?"

"I don't know," Rei said uncertainly, even more concerned than before. "But we should definitely be careful and I'll try again later."

He nodded, understanding, and got up quickly to leave. "If danger does come again, we'll have to fight it, no matter what. Should we tell the other senshi?"

"We could tell the others, but I don't think we should tell Usagi. I'm not sure how she would take it."

Mamoru nodded. "She's been so happy, now that things have been peaceful for a while. I don't want to upset her on a 'maybe.'"

"I understand, we'll all be more alert and watch out for her. I'll tell the others."

"Thank you," said Mamoru before leaving the temple in a hurry, wanting to see Usako and make sure she was okay.

Rei watched him leave with emotionless eyes. Whatever happened next, they would protect their princess.

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Minako and Makoto were shopping and checking out the guys downtown.

"Isn't this the CUTEST orange sweater you've ever seen? And it's in my size too!" cried Minako.

"Isn't that the CUTEST guy you've ever seen?" cried Makoto. "Brown hair, brown eyes, tall, buff..."

"Okay, girl! Calm down, I see him! I see him! Although I do prefer the blond haired blue eyed type better," said Minako, beginning to get all starry eyed.

"He looks just like my old boyfriend..."

Minako suddenly halted and sighed. "Why do you always say that? It totally ruins the moment!"

"No, it doesn't! And besides, it's true!"

Beep... beep... beep...

They both stopped arguing when they realized that their communicators were going off. Minako sighed and grabbed hers. "Venus and Jupiter here, what's up? Any trouble?"

Rei's tired face appeared on the little screen. "No, nothing's wrong, but I'm calling an emergency Scout meeting. I need you guys here, on the double... Oh, and don't tell Usagi, we can't have her there."

"Why not?"

"I'll explain when you get here."

Minako pictured Andrew in her mind while Makoto looked longingly at the cute guy one last time before they shook themselves out of their reveries and Minako said, "Duty calls!"

They both took off for the temple.

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Ami was sitting at her desk, working on her calculus homework when her communicator went off. As professionally as possible, she answered, "Mercury here, and this better be important, I was in the middle of my calculus homework."

"Hey, Ames," Rei said over the speaker. "We need you at the temple for a Scout meeting, pronto."

"I'm on my way," Ami said before turning off her communicator and finishing her last problem. She then got her coat and left in the direction of Cherry Hill.

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It was nearing sunset when the girls arrived at the temple. Rei was waiting for them on the porch. Makoto spoke up, "Hey, girl! What's with the meeting? Is there any trouble, 'cause I haven't been able to pound something for a long time!"

"Yes," Ami said calmly. "Is there something wrong?"

Rei ushered them inside before relating to them what had happened earlier with Mamoru.

"And you don't know why the fire went out?" asked Minako, nervously.

"Maybe you should try it again. Maybe you did something wrong."

"WHAT?! I have been doing this for nearly my entire life! I'd like to see YOU do a fire reading and get it right!"

"Okay, calm down, Rei! We don't think you did anything wrong, but just to make sure, you should try it again," said Ami, ever the voice of reason.

Rei mumbled under her breath for a moment before kneeling before the great fire and calling to it for help. "Oh, great fire, I ask you again, what is happening to destroy our peaceful time? Who is our enemy? What can we do to defeat it?"

Suddenly a picture formed itself in the fire of two Sailors. One was wearing all white and silver and had wings; the other wore black and pink and carried a long golden staff. The other girls gasped.

"MORE sailors? Sheesh, how many of us are there, anyway?"

"Are they the enemy?"

"I don't think so," replied Rei. "I don't sense any negative vibes from them, but I can feel them coming nearer to the Earth. They may be coming to help us with whatever new evil is coming."

"How can you be sure?" asked Makoto.

"I just KNOW, okay?!"

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Meanwhile, Sailor Angel and Princess Zara, now in Sailor Phosphora form, were approaching Earth.

"It's so pretty!" exclaimed Angel. "It's so... blue!"

"Yeah, it's a nice change from the constant black, pink and gold I see all the time," said Phosphora.

"This is why I like my job. I get to travel and I'm not stuck with seeing white and silver everywhere."

"So what are we supposed to do until this new enemy comes?"

"Prepare the other Scouts and disguise ourselves as normal humans."

"All right! I haven't been able to do that in so long! We can go shopping!"

"I know! You should come on missions with me more often. It makes everything so much more fun."

"Thank you, I just seem to have that effect on people."

"Why do you always try to be conceited when you're not?"

"I LIKE being conceited!"

"But you're not, you just pretend you are."

"That's why I do it, because it's fun. You should try it sometime."

"Maybe..." was the last thing she said before entering the atmosphere.

----------------------------------------------------

Rei was ushering everyone outside. "We'll start checking things out tomorrow. Everyone be sure to stay on your guard."

Suddenly, a bright flash of light streaking across the sky stopped everyone in their tracks.

"What the heck?!" cried Rei.

"I don't know, probably a shooting star."

"All right. We'll meet at the arcade tomorrow at noon," said Minako. "I'll call Usa-chan and tell her."

"Fine, just tell her it's a routine check," said Ami.

And everyone said good-bye and went their own separate ways.

To Be Continued...


	2. Remember Me?

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora - The Fight Against Catastrophe"

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Chapter Two

Promptly at noon, Rei and Ami were sitting at a booth at Crown's Cafe. Rei was just beginning to complain about Makoto's and Minako's tardiness when...

"Sorry we're late!" panted Minako and Makoto as they sat down opposite Rei and Ami.

"You guys are picking up Usa-chan's habits!" lectured Rei.

"Where is Usagi-chan?" asked Ami. "She's actually been getting better at being on time lately."

"Oh, she'll probably be here in five, four, three, two..."

A flash of blond hair streaked through the sliding doors. "I'M HERE! I'M HERE! And I'm only five minutes late! Not even my teacher would punish me for that!"

All four girls bowed their heads as sweat drops formed on their foreheads and they began discussing what areas they were going to search in today.

"I don't know why we're going through all this trouble," complained Usagi. "I could be at Mamoru's apartment right now instead of searching all day for evil that doesn't exist any more."

Everyone else gave each other sideways glances that Usagi didn't understand, but decided to ignore for the moment. Minako spoke up,

"Well, this is just to make sure. We need to protect our princess!"

Usagi grinned. "Aw, you guys are great... But you really are overprotective."

Everyone began babbling, when meanwhile...

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Outside the cafe, Celeste and Zara were chatting. Both had forfeited their usual garb for more inconspicuous clothing. Celeste was wearing a white shirt and a light blue skirt and Zara wore a striped green halter top with a black leather miniskirt and suspenders.

"Now remember, when we go in there, just act normal. I know we haven't seen all these people since the Silver Millenium, but they more than likely don't remember us. So, just pretend you don't see them. Okay?" said Celeste.

Zara rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. I'm not that deluded. How stupid do you think I am?"

"I don't think you're stupid. I just know that you get overly excited sometimes."

"Oh, well that's okay then."

And they walked in the door.

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Totally unaware, the five senshi continued talking to one another when...

"AAAAHHHH!!! It's you!!!" came a voice from nowhere.

Before she knew what hit her, Rei was up and out of her seat, with someone hugging the life out of her.

"Mars! I can't believe it's really you! I haven't seen you in so long! How has my favorite cousin in the universe been?"

Meanwhile, behind the embarrassing display, Celeste smacked her head with her hand. "Why didn't I see this coming? I'm supposed to have visions of the future..."

Rei was stunned and angry. "M... Mars? I- I don't know anyone named Mars... Who are you?"

The rest of the Scouts were in shock. Who was this person supposed to be and how did she know who Rei really was?

"Mars? Don't you remember me? It's Zara!"

"Of course she doesn't remember you, baka!" cried Celeste, from behind her.

"Wait a minute... Zara?... AAAAHHHH!!!" Rei cried and hugged Zara back.

All of the Scouts' jaws dropped. "Okay, NOW I'm confused," said Minako.

Rei settled down. "Guys, this is my cousin, Zara! I haven't seen her since the Silver Millenium!"

Again, all of the Scouts' jaws dropped. Once they regained their power of speech, Ami exclaimed in a rushed whisper, "Um... Guys, wouldn't it be better if we took this somewhere less populated."

"YES. Maybe we should," said Celeste, finally approaching the group. "Hi, I'm Celeste."

The group looked at each other, not sure of what to do. Usagi looked at the two new people and felt she had nothing to fear from them. She looked over at Rei, who definitely seemed to trust them, which in itself was amazing. With a nod to all her friends, everyone got up and exited Crown Cafe.

Once they were outside, Makoto's curiosity got the best of her. "Okay, who are you people?"

"You guys don't have to worry. These are our friends," said Rei. "This was my best friend and cousin from the Silver Millenium and..." She looked over at Celeste before she continued. "And I don't believe I know who she is."

Celeste stepped forward. "I'd better explain. Can we go someplace private?"

Rei shrugged. "Okay... We can go to my place."

"Great," said Celeste as she attempted to jump into the air and wound up flat on her face. "Oops. I forgot I can't fly without wings."

"And you say that I'm a ditz!" said Zara, smugly.

"Well, excuse me!" said Celeste, picking herself up. "I do ONE ditzy thing and you automatically get on my case!"

"And I'm never going to let you forget it either!"

"Hmph!" exclaimed Celeste as she continued following behind Rei.

Everyone else looked on in amazement as Zara, Rei and Celeste babbled on in their own little world while following Rei to the temple.

"I hope we get there soon," said Usagi. "Because I'm even more confused than usual."

"You would be," said Rei, over her shoulder.

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Once the group reached the shrine, Celeste asked everyone to stand back. Taking her Angel Star Wand from her bag, she held it above her head and shouted, "Celestial Light Power, Make-up!"

Bright white beams of light emitted from the wand and blocked Celeste from view, in a flash of silver sparkles, Sailor Angel appeared in her place.

"You were one of the Scouts I saw in the fire!" exclaimed Rei. She turned to Zara. "That means that you're the other one."

"You catch on quick, don't you?" said Zara.

Angel made a brief bow of respect to the Senshi and then to Usagi. Usagi smiled and asked, "What exactly are you doing here and who are you?"

"I am Sailor Angel. I come from a distant galaxy. My office is to inform the Sailor Scouts when danger is approaching."

Rei squinted at her. "You've kind of been neglecting your duties for a while, haven't you?"

"Well, I happen to be one of the very first people to be turned into a Starseed by Galaxia. This happened WAY before any of you even knew that you were Sailor Scouts!"

Rei pulled back and Zara leaned in to whisper, "It's okay, she's just a little bitter on the subject."

"And who are you supposed to be?" asked Ami to Zara.

"In my Sailor form, I am Sailor Phosphora, senshi of the dawn. I also rule over the Veidan galaxy as Princess Zara. I was asked by Sailor Angel to help you."

"We don't need help," said Usagi. "We have defeated many enemies before and nothing's happened for a while now."

Angel waved her wand in the air and a picture of the galaxy appeared. "Things won't be peaceful for very much longer. This is your galaxy."

Everyone looked at the picture. "It's so beautiful!" exclaimed Minako.

"That is the Light of Hope," said Angel. "It makes your galaxy shine brighter than all others."

The Senshi looked at Usagi who blushed, before they looked back at the picture. Angel moved the picture to reveal a dark shadow moving across the galaxy.

"What is that?" asked Makoto.

"That is Catastrophe, the father of Chaos, or rather, that is his dark dimension, moving here. He was once locked away, but he managed to get free. He feeds on hope and light, and is headed this way since this is where all hope is centered. Your princess is the most endangered. As you know, Chaos fed off of power, which is why it chose Galaxia to inhabit, because she was the most powerful. But Catastrophe feeds off of love and hope, so he would most likely be after your princess for her power."

Usagi stepped away from the picture in fright before a figure appeared behind her and wrapped its arms around her. She didn't need to turn around to know who it was, he always showed up whenever she was scared.

"When did you get here?" asked Rei in astonishment.

"That's not important, I've been here long enough," replied Mamoru.

Angel and Zara recognized who it was and they both bowed to him. "Greetings, Prince of Earth," said Angel formally.

Zara, however, began to coo at the couple. "Oh, that's so cute! They're still together! Remember when Mars and I came up with the idea for Venus to dress up as her so she could go to Earth and Mars asked me to go to earth and watch her for you? We went to a lot of trouble to get you guys together!"

"Hey! It's my job to do the matchmaking in this group!" Venus retorted irritably. "I could have gotten them together without help!"

Mars added, "Well it was taking you long enough! So we decided to give them a little push."

"It's still my job! Whoever is called the Senshi of Love, please raise your hand!" said Minako. No one but her raised their hand. "No, please, keep them up so I can count!"

"That's not the point! We set them up just as much as you did!"

"YOU SET US UP?!" exclaimed Usagi and Mamoru.

"You're not complaining are you?" asked Zara, Rei, and Minako at the same time.

Usagi and Mamoru both turned an interesting shade of red.

Makoto had a dreamy look in her eyes and Ami was looking everywhere but at them before she turned back to the picture of the new enemy. "So, back to reason you're here?" she said.

"Thank you, Mercury!" said Angel.

Usagi at that moment stepped forward and said, "Well, If you are going to be staying with us for awhile, you should probably know what we're called now. I am Tuskino Usagi and Endymion is now Chiba Mamoru. Venus is Aino Minako, Mars is Hino Rei, Jupiter is Kino Makoto, and Mercury is Minzuno Ami."

"Thank you, you can call me Celeste."

"And I'm Zara! It's nice to see you all... again!"

"Well, we'd better be going, Zara and I have to set our new place up and look for some jobs. BLECH!"

"Ewww... Do we have to?"

"If we want to look normal, besides how do you intend on eating?"

"Oh, yeah..."

"What would you do without me?"

"Starve to death," exclaimed Rei. And the whole group laughed before starting to leave to go home for the day.

Before they left Makoto asked them, "How much longer do you think it will be until we have to fight?"

"Not much longer, a day or two at the most, it depends on what Catastrophe is planning to do." Sailor Angel said as she de-transformed back into Celeste.

They all nodded and waved briefly at the retreating duo before moving to leave themselves to get some sleep which they were all sure they would need for the upcoming battle.

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Mamoru had decided to walk Usagi home because he wasn't sure about leaving her alone tonight. 'Oh, shut up, you just want an excuse,' he told himself with a grimace. Besides he didn't feel like be killed by a certain Odango's father anytime soon. Sure, he could understand her father's feelings (After all, he had experienced his first fatherly protectiveness with Chibi-Usa and Helios), but sometimes Usagi's father was just plain scary!

"Mamo-chan, what do you think will happen if Catastrophe comes and takes me?" Usagi asked tentatively.

Mamoru looked down at her scared sea blue eyes and whispered, "Nothing, nothing is going to happen to you. We will never find out."

"But Mamo-chan..." she was successfully cut off by Mamoru's warm lips on hers in a quick but heart-warming kiss.

"I said... nothing is going to happen to you, I won't let anything happen to you. Don't even think about it, have I ever let you down before?" he whispered huskily.

"Never, my prince," she smiled as she leaned up for another breath-taking kiss with her Mamo-chan...

Suddenly, a voice rang out. "Tsukino Usagi is that you?! Do you know what time it is young lady?! You get in the house right now before your father comes out here and sees you!" she heard her mother call from the house. Then she realized she was only one house away from her own. She sighed and looked back up at Mamo-chan who was smiling down at her.

"Maybe you should go in now Usako," he said smiling as he watched her face turn from a beautifully glazed over starry eyed look to that adorable little pout he had loved so much when they were sworn enemies.

"Do I have to?" asked Usagi bluntly.

"Yes, my little Usa," he chuckled slightly, "but not without this." And with that he wrapped his arms around her petite little body and pulled her in as close as possible, molding their bodies together so you could not see anything between them. He bent his head down until their lips met in another slow passionate kiss, telling each other again and again how much they really loved each other. Usagi's arms came to rest on his chest while one of Mamoru's hands made its way to her hair to comb through the lovely golden locks and then to her face to guide it so he could taste her more gently.

"Usagi! I told you to come in the house NOW!"

The two reluctantly parted and stared into each other's eyes for awhile before Mamoru brought Usagi's hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it.

"Goodnight Princess," he said slowly before turning to go. Leaving was always a hard thing to do, but it always had to be done eventually.

"Goodnight Mamo-chan," she said smiling and turned to go into her house.

As he watched her go in he thought to himself, 'Nothing is going to happen to her, I swear it won't. Good night Usako.' And he walked the rest of the way home in silence.

To Be Continued...


	3. Interior Decor and Other Battles

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora - The Fight Against Catastrophe"

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Chapter Three

"Well, I guess this is it," said Celeste.

Zara looked around the modest apartment with an air of slight disappointment. Celeste caught the look.

"I know that this isn't the most extravagant place in Tokyo, and I know that you're used to your palace, but this is for the sake of appearing normal."

"Oh, I know," sighed Zara. "It's fine, really."

Celeste shrugged. "I guess I'm just used to staying anywhere because of all the traveling I do. Really, you don't know how lucky you are to be able to stay at your own palace. I haven't seen mine for more than a day for at least six months!" She paused and looked at the bare room, then smiled. "There is one good thing about this place though."

"What?"

"Interior decorating!"

Zara's smile lit up her face and she clapped her hands in excitment. "Oh, yeah! That's as much fun as shopping!"

"Go to it, girl! I leave it in your capable hands, just leave my bedroom alone, I get dibs on that."

Celeste went into the kitchen while Zara began to work a spell that would furnish the apartment to her liking. Celeste looked about the kitchen, and then glancing over her shoulder, she took her Wand out and waved it over her hand muttering a spell. After a brief flash of white light, a silver platter appeared in her hand bearing blueberry muffins, Celeste's favorite! "Hey, Zara, if you're hungry, I made some muffins!" she called, setting them on the counter.

"Maybe later," Zara said from the living room. "I'm going to go out and find some material for curtains!"

"Can't you conjure those?"

There was a pause. "Okay... I want to go check out the available species, satisfied?"

Celeste giggled and muttered to herself. "Same Zara..." She peeked her head out of the kitchen and grinned at her. "Check out some good ones for me all right? I'm going to stay and finish settling into our apartment."

Zara rolled her eyes. "I don't see how you could pick that over guy watching, but to each her own. Ja ne!"

"Ja!" After Zara left, Celeste was suddenly brought to her knees by an immense wave of pain flooding her senses. She placed one hand to her head and willed the vision to end...

In her mind's eye she could see images... of several youmas at a park draining the humans there... After a moment, the image subsided and the pain a moment after... Celeste rose to her feet. She knew what she had to do, whether or not Zara or the other senshi were with her. They were all sleeping and Zara was out... besides, she might be somewhat small, but she could hold her own. This could be her chance to prove to everyone that she wasn't just some little angel and actually a formidable warrior! She held up her Wand...

"Celestial Light Power, Make-UP!"

In a flash of silver stars and white light, she stood as Sailor Angel once again. She opened the large window that faced central Tokyo and flew into the dark sky.

------------------------------------------------

She didn't need to know where the park was she could see the bright red flashes from a long distance away. From her vantage point in the air she could see the disgusting youmas with their bright red skin, wings like those of a bat, long fangs and pointed ears, with black soulless eyes staring out of a skull-like head, they had several humans at the ends of long black whips and several more lay on the ground, motionless. Sailor Angel would have recognized Catastrophe's youmas anywhere... she only too vividly recalled her last battle with him... She, Galaxia, and Zara had barely been able to defeat him... She could only imagine what would lie in store this time.

She landed gracefully across the way and addressed the youmas bravely. "Hold it right there! You have no right to steal the energy from the innocent people taking their moonlit walks! I am Sailor Angel and in the name of the galaxy, I will defeat you!"

The youmas dropped the humans they were holding and grinned evilly at her... Suddenly, Angel wasn't feeling quite so sure of herself...

At that moment, a voice rang out.

"Star Disorientation STRIKE!"

A wave of golden stars came flying from behind Sailor Angel and engulfed the youma in a whirlwind. Angel turned her head in the direction of the voice as youma fell all around her and smiled.

Sailor Phosphora stood a few meters away. "Girl, you'd better tell me the next time you go off to battle youma! Just be glad that I was here to save your butt!"

"Excuse me if you were guy watching when I had a vision!"

Several more youma closed in. Phosphora glanced around, temporarily losing her game face. "Okay, now's not the time, Angel!"

Angel and Phosphora tried to hold their own in the battle, but there were too many for just the two of them. Angel received a nasty shoulder wound and a fall to the ground. "We need help!"

Just as the words fell from her lips, something made itself heard over the sound of the battle... a sound like someone had snapped their fingers. All heads turned in the direction... and several meters away stood three scantily clad figures.

The one with the long black hair spoke up. "Penetrating the darkness..."

The one with a brown ponytail continued. "The three shooting stars in the night sky..."

Finally, the one with silver hair spoke. "We are..."

"Sailor Star Fighter!"

"Sailor Star Maker!"

"Sailor Star Healer!"

All three shouted in unison. "To protect our friends on the planet Earth, Sailor Starlights are here!"

But apparently the youmas didn't care who they were. They advanced upon the new Senshi but they didn't get far. Fighter took the offensive. "Star Serious Laser!"

Most of the youma were obliterated in that one attack. Angel and Phosphora were stunned. Such power!

"I think those are..." Angel started.

"The starlights!" Phosphora finished. "Wicked cool!"

"Galaxia told me about them... They were the ones who helped Sailor Moon defeat Chaos."

"Yeah, I've heard stories about them from cousin Kakyuu!"

Sailor Star Fighter looked in their direction. "Hey, are you gonna stand there gabbing all night or help us defeat these things?"

Phosphora's quick temper flared up at that remark. "Well, FINE if you're going to be that way about it, let's roast these things, Angel!"

"You got it, Phosphora!"

Phosphora knelt on the ground while Angel took her position behind her. They both glared at the remaining youma and pointed their weapons with deadly accuracy. "Galactic Star Strike Double-TEAM!"

In a whirl of silver and gold, the two energies that emitted from Phosphora's Staff and Angel's Wand merged together to form one great power that quickly engulfed all the youma and destroyed them leaving nothing but dust.

Phosphora looked at Fighter. "Did that help?" she asked sweetly.

The starlights stood there stunned for a moment before dismissing the comment and turning to leave.

Angel took a step forward. "Hey, wait! Why are you here?"

Maker looked back at her. "The same reason you are, I imagine." She glanced at Phosphora and nodded in acknowledgment. "Princess Zara..."

Phosphora looked up, surprised that she knew whom she was. "How did you..." She looked back at Angel to see if she had some sort of explanation, but Angel could only shrug. When they both looked back, the three figures had vanished.

Phosphora paused for a moment, then struck her staff on the ground in frustration. "Well... Fine then! Go! Leave us hanging! See if I care!"

Angel gazed off into the distance where the starlights had previously stood. "Is leaving without a goodbye popular among the stars?"

Phosphora gave her a disgusted glance before stomping in the direction of their apartment. "Okay, let's just go."

With a shrug, Angel followed her and they leaped across the rooftops... to finish their interior decorating.

To Be Continued...


	4. Enter the Bad Guy

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora - The Fight Against Catastrophe"

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Chapter Four

In the dark dimention, where no light can enter and no goodness remains, an evil king sat upon his throne of grotesque twisted metals. He himself was the farthest thing from grotesque, however, with his pale dead white skin, delcate leathery bat wings protruding from his head, teeth that gleamed, or would if he smiled, and long elegant hands.

An artificial light came from above him, illuminating the throne room. He looked up, revealing cold metal-gray soulless eyes that could pierce through the heart of the bravest warrior... they seemed to burn with dark fire and yet still seem like ice... Ice from his black heart... He possessed an evil, chilling beauty.

This was Catastrophe.

He snapped his fingers. "Xerxak!"

A dark blue and black figure with gray eyes that were sunken into what looked like a skull immediately appeared before the throne and bowed. "Yes, Lord Catastrophe?"

"Our progress on arriving at the planet?"

"We shall be there in no time at all."

Catastrophe glanced away. "Good," he said with a wave of his claw. "Begone. I must think."

Xerxak bowed once more and faded into the darkness, leaving Catastrophe alone. He rose from the throne and walked a few paces. He waved one hand in the air and a dimentional window appeared, showing the planet Earth. A slow, sinister grin that might have been attractive in a lesser face graced his lips as he gazed at the small blue planet.

"Soon... Very soon all the power of the universe will be mine to possess..." His hand waved again and the picture shifted, changed, into the figure of a young woman. His expression changed slightly, though whether it was pensive or menacing was impossible to tell.

"I wonder if she will even remember..."

---------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile on Earth...

"I don't want to go to school!"

Celeste rolled her eyes. "We have to."

Zara's shoulders slumped. "But why? I finished my schooling ages ago! Daddy got me the best tutor in the Veidan Galaxy! I don't want to do it again, science and math were horrible enough the first time!"

"Zara, I wish we didn't have to either, but to everyone here, we look entirely too young to not go to school. For heaven's sake, I stopped aging at eighteen! We have to--"

"Appear normal," Zara finished for her, downcast. "Yes, I know."

Celeste sighed, genuinely sorry that she was putting Zara through this. "I'm really sorry... At least there will be cute guys there..."

"Not even that can make up for biology..." Zara said with a huge sigh. "And besides... those uniforms are so BLAND!"

"I must admit, I agree with you there..."

--------------------------------------------------

The next day...

"Come ON! We're going to be late! The morning star is up! Up and at 'em!" Celeste received no response from the lump under the covers. Grinning, she began to sing. "Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful..."

"SHUT UP!!... please... Want sleep... Sleep now..."

Celeste put her hands on her hips. "Well, fine, I'll go without you because I am not going to be late... but if you get detention, it's not MY fault!"

"Okay, bye now."

Celeste sighed and defeated, began the journey to Juuban High School. Once there and handed her registration cards, she walked to her first class and wasn't unduly surprised to find that Mercury was already there. She smiled and walked over to her. "Hey, Mer-I mean... Mizuno Ami!"

Ami looked up from her book and gave a small smile. "Hello... Celeste... Sorano Celeste."

She nodded. "That's right. But you can call me Cel-chan, if you want." She sat down next to Ami. "I'm so glad that you're in my class, I didn't want to be the only one."

"Usa-chan is in this class too, but I don't expect to see her for another..." She glanced at her watch. "Seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds."

Celeste looked at her sideways. "What?"

"Usagi is always late, but she's the most punctual late person I know. This is how I know exactly when she'll get here. So where is... Zara?"

"Right, Heno Zara. I couldn't drag her out of bed. But I'm sure she'll be here soon." She turned away slightly before muttering, "I hope."

A shrill bell sounded and a tall woman walked to the front of the class. "Good morning, class. Before we get started, I'd like to introduce you to our new students..."

Ami looked back down at her watch and mumbled a countdown while Celeste looked at her like she was crazy, but a moment later, a streak of blond and red hair shot through the doorway... Or tried to. Zara and Usagi tumbled into one another and fell on the floor.

Usagi appeared unfazed and immediately got up off the floor. She apologized to Zara before turning to the teacher. "I'm soooo sorry! I didn't mean to be late, I REALLY didn't! I promise I'll never be late again... and I mean it this time!"

The teacher was about to reprimand her when Zara stepped in. "I'm sorry, ma'am, it's my fault that she's late. You see, I am a new student here and she was the only person that would give me directions to the classroom."

The teacher paused for a moment before waving them away with a tired expression. "Okay, go to your seats. I'll excuse you this one time."

As they made their way to two vacant seats, Usagi mouthed a silent 'THANK YOU' to Zara who motioned that it was nothing.

The teacher continued. "Now today in biology we will be discussing..."

In one accord, Zara and Usagi dropped their heads onto their desks with exasperated sighs while Ami and Celeste sweat dropped.

"Now class, take out your beakers. We are going to be doing Lab Five today. All of the chemicals should be labeled..."

Usagi looked at the labels on the jars with an expression of 'huh?' on her face, while Zara, having studied before (with great trepidation) knew what they meant and thoughtfully remarked softly to Usagi, "Hmm... you know, if we take a little of this... and a little of that... we can always come back tonight in senshi form and blow up the lab so we wouldn't have to come back tomorrow. And if anybody asks, we can always say that we got bad vibes and that biology was clearly developed by the forces of darkness. I mean, honestly, who could argue with that?"

Usagi began to giggle uncontrollably until Ami came over to see what was so funny. "You know Usa-chan, you're not going to get any better in school and impress Mamoru-san with your grades unless you take this more seriously." Then she saw the two chemicals that Zara had been referring to. "You know, you probably shouldn't be handling those. They can be very deadly if mixed together."

Zara was about to reply when the teacher walked over to their lab table. "What's going on?"

Zara smiled sweetly. "Oh, I'm showing Mizuno Ami how to do this experiment."

Ami was shocked. "WHAT?"

Zara covered up the labels with her hands. "Yes, you see, if you mix this one and this together, absolutely nothing will happen because this one is a neutral and this one is a chemical."

And she started to pour one into the other. Ami began to shout, "NO! DON'T!"

While the teacher was staring at Ami's strange behavior, Zara used a small spell to change one of the chemicals into water as Usagi looked on in amusement. And nothing happened when the two were mixed, just as Zara had said. "See?" she smiled.

The teacher smiled back. "Well done! And Ami, I'm surprised at you! You usually have much better control over yourself!"

Embarrassed, Ami softly apologized to the teacher and blushed. As she went back to her table, she muttered under her breath, "Curse blushing! Curse the noun, curse the verb, curse the act!"

Celeste, having watched the entire display, put her head in one hand and silently prayed that the day would be over soon.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm not getting it!!!"

Zara turned her head to look in the direction she heard Celeste's whine come from. "Oh, come on, it's not that hard... It's only a box step for heaven's sake!"

"I CAN'T DANCE!"

Everyone in the gym sweat dropped, Celeste had been complaining for the entire gym period. And it didn't look like she was going to be stopping any time soon. Her partner sighed. Celeste turned back to him, cursing the fact that they were currently teaching ballroom dance in gym class. She had been noticing how every girl in the room had been staring over their shoulders at him and two others and wondered why.

"I'm really sorry..." she began.

"It's all right, not everyone gets it the first time. It's very simple..." He began counting the steps. "One, two, three, one, two, three... Let me lead! Now, look up and don't stare at the ground... That's much better!"

Celeste smiled big. "I'm dancing! It's a miracle!"

He laughed slightly. After a moment, she spoke up again. "You know, I don't even know your name..."

"Kou Taiki."

"It's nice to meet you! I'm Sorano Celeste." She looked over to see how Zara was faring with her partner...

"SHUT UP AND LET ME DANCE! I know how to do it! You DON'T have to explain everything to me like I'm a two year old! And WHY IS EVERYONE STARING AT US?!?!"

Her partner looked down at her like someone using a great deal of patience. "They're not staring at US, they're staring at ME. Don't you know who I am?" He sounded surprised.

"Should I? Or better yet... do I CARE? Let me think... Um, no."

His chest puffed out. "Well, I happen to be the lead singer of the Three Lights, Kou Seiya."

"Wow? I'm guessing that's a good thing..." At that point, everyone in the gym stopped and stared. Zara noticed the astonished looks she was getting. "What'd I say?"

Meanwhile, across the gym...

"YATEN! You're back!"

Yaten was hit full blast in the stomach by a flash of blond hair. When she loosened up enough for him to get air, he looked down at Minako and sighed. 'Oh no... How did she find us so fast?' He gave her a weak smile. "Uh... Minako! ... What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for school, silly! Why didn't you TELL us you were coming back? Didn't you go back to your little star galaxy thingie? Oh, Usagi's going to be sooooo excited! Not to mention, I'm excited-"

Yaten cut her off by holding up a hand. "It's okay... I'm a... happy to see you too..."

Zara popped up out of nowhere, not noticing Yaten's presence. "V! I got stuck with the MOST conceited, egotistical, self-absorbed idiot in the entire known universe! He keeps insulting my dancing and making me look bad! Please switch with me? Pleeeeeease?"

"Well, who are you dancing with?"

Zara pointed. "HIM."

Minako took one look and... "SEIYA!!!"

Zara gave Minako's back a glare and muttered under her breath. "Back stabber..."

Minako didn't notice the look; she was too busy hugging the life out of Seiya. She turned back to Zara. "Zara! These are Seiya and Yaten! Guys, this a good friend, Heno Zara! Say hi!"

Zara clenched her jaw. "Hi," she said with bare control.

Yaten gave a polite hello and Seiya gave an amused smirk. "We've met."

Flashing a brilliant smile at Yaten, Zara chirped, "Nice to meet you!" She shifted to Seiya, gave him the once over, then turned and walked away without saying anything. When Minako and Yaten gave him questioning looks, he shrugged. "What'd I say?"

---------------------------------------------

Later, at lunch...

"That Heno Zara!" Ami fumed. "She makes me SO mad!"

Usagi and Makoto were stunned. "Ami-chan... we've never seen you like this!"

"Like what?"

"Angry!"

"I'm NOT angry!!! ... I'm just a little frustrated, that's all..."

She sat back down and tried to calm herself.

Makoto sighed. "Things just keep getting stranger..."

"You guys!!!"

All three turned to see Minako streaking across the lunch area towards them. "GUESS WHAT?!"

"What?"

"THEY'RE BACK!"

"Who?"

She reached them and stopped to catch her breath. "It's so exciting!"

"What is?"

"You should have seen their faces!"

"Minako-chan!! Just tell us!"

"The Starlights are back!!"

Everyone paused. "WHAT?!?!"

---------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, in another corner of the school, the three lights were talking of the days events, while hiding from their many fans.

Taiki leaned against a wall. "So... Now that we're here, should we reveal ourselves to Princess Zara and the other one? And do you think we should get the other scouts involved?"

Yaten spoke up. "This is our mission. We don't need to involve them."

Seiya shook his head. "No... We shouldn't involve them unless it's absolutely necessary."

"You're just worried about Sailor Moon..." Yaten snorted.

"Yaten..." Taiki warned.

"I just want to know that he's not going to let anything interfere with our mission."

Seiya turned away. "Don't worry about Odango... She's got her boyfriend now..."

Taiki and Yaten were surprised at the bitterness in his tone. Yaten went over to him. "Oh, forget her already... You can have any girl you want! And besides... I saw the way you were looking at your dance partner earlier..."

"WHAT?!? You have got to be joking! That was the only time a female has ever insulted me in public! That's the only time a female has insulted me, period!"

"Except for Usagi," Taiki pointed out.

Seiya glared at them before walking away. "That's none of your business."

Yaten and Taiki looked after him knowingly before following.

To Be Continued...


	5. New Scariness: Auditions!

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora - The Fight Against Catastrophe"

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Chapter Five

Celeste was enjoying the peacefulness of the apartment as she listened to her soft classical music. She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes, sighing.

"Celeste!!"

She bolted upright, eyes wide as Zara burst into their apartment. "You will not believe this!"

"What?"

Zara dangled a piece of newspaper in front of Celeste's face. "What do you think of that?"

Celeste snatched the paper from her and looked at it.

'THREE LIGHTS TRYOUTS FOR SINGERS AND DANCERS' read the headline. Celeste shrugged. "What about it?"

"You remember how you said we need jobs? Well, ta da! Here's the perfect opportunity! Your voice is positively angelic and I'd like to see anyone beat me in dance!"

A slow smile spread across Celeste's face. "You're right! How wonderful! I was afraid I'd wind up working in a department store or something..."

"What would you do without me?"

"At the risk of getting whapped, I'm going to plead the fifth."

"We're not in America, dear. There is no Bill of Rights here."

Celeste paused. "Okay... then I just don't want to get whapped."

---------------------------------------------------

Seiya strummed a chord on his guitar, angrily. "I don't see why this is necessary!"

Mr. Tasheo, the manager of the Three Lights, furrowed his brow apologetically. "I'm very sorry, but the Three Lights have gone down quite a bit in popularity since you left. Now girl bands are all the rage... If you want to get back in the main stream, you need a new gimmick."

Taiki sighed. "He's right, Seiya."

Yaten mumbled something under his breath that no one quite heard.

"What was that?"

Taiki turned to Mr. Tasheo. "I think he said 'Show them in.'"

---------------------------------------------------------

"I have never been so nervous in my entire life. Look at my hands, I'm shaking!"

Zara looked down at Celeste's trembling hands. "Yep, they are shaking."

"You're not helping!!"

Zara looked down at the line of girls that wrapped around the block before glancing back at Celeste. "I'm glad you actually got me up early, for once." An evil grin graced her face. "Poor girls behind us don't stand a chance, heh heh..." She draped an arm across Celeste's shoulder. "Now calm down, Cel, you've got a gorgeous voice! And we've been through a lot tougher situations than this."

She grinned after a moment. "Thanks, Zar... I needed that."

"Tell me again what you would do without me?"

"HEY, ZARA!!"

Both heads turned in unison to see a familiar ebony haired girl stomping her way... a... making her way through the crowd. "S'cuse me, s'cuse me, talent coming through... STEP ASIDE PEOPLE!" Rei made her way over to them. "I should have KNOWN I'd see you here!"

Celeste whispered to Zara. "What is she doing here?"

She whispered back. "You don't want to know... HI Rei! So I guess you're trying out for..."

Rei tossed her hair over her shoulder. "All of the above, of course! You know I'm multi-talented! Don't you remember when we used to put on those little concerts for your father and my parents?" She said smugly.

"Oh, yeah... It'd be fabulous to perform with you again!"

Celeste was looking around. "Is anyone else here?" she asked, meaning the senshi.

"Why?"

"Because I think that's Minako over there, trying to get your attention..."

Rei turned to see the ditzy love goddess looking a bit lost at the people who wouldn't let her through. Rei smacked herself in the head. "Man! I thought I lost her..."

Zara waved her hand in the air. "Minako, over here!"

The sea finally parted and Minkako stumbled through the less than happy crowd of girls who didn't like to see so many girls cutting their way up to the front...

"WOW! What a crazy mob..." Minako exclaimed with an excited smile.

"You're auditioning too? What for?" asked Celeste.

"Lead singer. I've waited my whole life for this... AND I get to get close to Yaten!" Minako sighed, dreamily.

"Minako, you're drooling..."

A voice from the front called everyone's attention. "NEXT TEN AUDITIONEES!"

Automatically, Celeste began to freak out. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod... I can't do this!!!"

Zara grabbed a hold of Celeste's shoulders. "BREATHE!" Celeste began to hyperventilate. "NORMALLY!"

Minako glanced over Celeste's shoulder. "Is she okay?"

"She's just little excited..."

Rei watched them all go crazy with a look of amusement on her face. 'Well, if she drops out... more opportunity for me!'

And whether she liked it or not, Celeste was dragged into the building with Zara pulling, Minako pushing, and Rei snickering.

---------------------------------------------------------

Each of them were given numbers and told to wait offstage in a line. As per her request, Celeste was at the back, to give herself "time to calm down."

The singing came first. Zara turned to Rei. "What song are you doing?"

"My showstopper of course, 'Fire Soul Love.' Once they hear me sing that, they'll be begging me to join!" Rei replied, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Oh, yeah! I remember you doing that one!"

"What about you, Minako-chan?" asked Zara.

She smiled. "The one I always do, 'Route Venus.'"

Minako glanced out at the stage where another girl was singing. "I'm a heel-in..."

"That's 'shoe-in,' Minako-chan," said Rei.

"Heel, shoe... What's the difference?"

Celeste wasn't really listening to the conversation. She clasped her hands in front of her to keep them from shaking. 'Everyone else is so confident,' she thought. 'There's no way I'll be able to pull this off...' She glanced at Zara. 'But I can't just leave... It would be so wonderful if Zara and I got to perform together... I can do this, I can do this...' She repeated the mantra over and over in her head as if it were a magic talisman to keep her from freaking out again.

By the time Celeste's hands had stopped shaking for the most part, Minako had already gone out to sing.

Minako went out onto the stage looking slightly nervous and stiff. She took a moment to look at her judges; Taiki seemed to be scrutinizing her from head to toe and making notes that made her even more self-conscious and Seiya gave her a friendly but bored smile. She took a moment to look at Yaten but was discouraged when he looked asleep!

'That meany! He's sleeping during my audition. Now I can't show him how wonderful I am and make him fall head over heels in love with me!'

A dark depressed hue started to form around her that made Taiki and Seiya look slightly afraid... until she suddenly looked up again with a 'million watt smile' on her face that startled them. Then she began her song.

'I'll show him,' Minako thought to herself as her music began; she calmed down and relaxed into her song. Her voice was energetic and straightforward and her stage presence was amazing! Her audience felt warmth flow through their hearts at her performance and were all smiles when she was done. She gave a polite bow and then wink to her judges before skipping off the stage.

She came back and Zara was afraid that if her smile got any larger, her face would break. "Is there any contest?" she asked in a stage whisper. "They might as well stop the auditions now!"

"Don't speak too soon, Minako-chan," said Rei. It was her turn next. They both clapped her on the back. "Go get 'em!"

Rei gracefully made her way onto the stage with a look of total determination and confidence. She acknowledges her judges while flashing them her "choose me" smile and didn't even look phased when her music started. Unlike Minako's warm and lighthearted voice, Rei's was fiery and passionate. She put everything she had into her lyrics making a radiant and fiery performance. Her voice enveloped the room making everyone feel as if they were on fire. When she was done she gave a satisfied smirk before thanking the judges and gracefully sauntering off the stage.

Meanwhile...

Celeste turned to Zara. "I can't do this, Zara! I'm not good enough!"

Zara rolled her eyes. "Don't give me that! You're twice as good as any of the girls here!"

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Minako-chan." She turned from the irate blond back to Celeste. "The point is that you CAN do this, no matter how much you think you can't. You just have to believe in yourself. Look... If you can be a senshi, battle the forces of evil, and keep the peace in the galaxy, you can certainly stare down a couple of auditioners and wow 'em!"

A slow grin came to Celeste's face. "You're right!"

"Of course I'm right!"

"I can do this!"

"Yes, you can!"

"Tell me to breathe."

"Breathe!"

She took a deep breath and smiled. "What would I ever do without you?"

"I thought you were supposed to be figuring that out..."

A man by the curtain signaled that it was Zara's turn next. She grinned. "Wish me luck!"

"Good luck!"

Zara walked onto the stage as Rei came back, quite pleased with herself. She grinned at Minako. "Okay... NOW they can stop the auditions."

Celeste shushed her, staring out on stage. "I want to hear Zara..."

Zara came onto the stage with an elegant yet ruthful smile that commanded the attention of the audience. "I'm Heno Zara, 18, and I'm singing 'Star Fire.'"

----------------------------------------------------------------

From the audience, Taiki subtly pushed Yaten's nodding head off his shoulder. "Wake up!" he hissed, jogging Yaten awake.

"What?"

Seiya sighed. "Don't worry, you haven't missed anything too interesting."

Taiki began scribbling on a clipboard. "Well, you did miss Minako-san and Rei-san..."

"I was awake for Minako!" Yaten declared.

Seiya gave him a knowing look. "Awake for only Minako, eh?"

Yaten knew that tone and started sputtering. "What?! Of course, I will listen to... a friend! YEAH! Plus, there was no one else out there doing any better..." he finished his excuse lamely.

Seiya smirked. "Oh really? Then would you mind telling me, if you are so interested in watching our 'friends' audition, why didn't you watch Rei-san who happened to go right after her?"

Yaten turned a shade paler before turning away mumbling something to himself.

Seiya was about to go back to his teasing before Taiki decided to put an end to their childish behavor.

"That's enough, guys! The next auditionee is coming in and I don't know about you, but I would like to finish this casting in one piece and leave so we can get on with our mission!" he said all in one breath then gave them a look that brooked no argument.

Yaten, glad for the distraction, turned to see who was up next. All three were shocked to hear a familiar voice ring down at them.

"I'm Heno Zara, 18, and I'm singing 'Star Fire.'"

Yaten let out a barely stifled yawn as Taiki began taking notes on Zara's performance. Seiya, meanwhile, was gazing thoughtfully at the one female who had ever insulted him... and smiled.

Yaten had not been particulerly interested in the audition so far, except maybe when he had watched Minako, which he was still having conflicting thoughts about. But when he turned to see Seiya smiling that certain smile he had only used for one person that he could remember, he stopped a moment to listen to the Heno girl. He sighed. 'You're just setting yourself up for another heartbreak,' he told Seiya silently. For that smile he recognized had only been used one other time... for Usagi.

Zara's voice never wavered as she smoothly sang through her song. Her voice had a unique ring to it that could be defined as... enchanting, it was a pure sound with a dark undertone that captivated the audience's attention. Her eyes seemed to almost pierce through you with a cold chilling stare, but were also alluring and tempting at the same time. She had a wonderful stage presence and confidence that could not be denied. As she hit her final note, it came out in an extremely high blast of pure sound; however, instead of wanting to run from it, the audience felt as though they were being enveloped into it.

When Zara had finished her song she took a moment to study her casting directors. The first one she noticed had long brown hair pulled back and seemed to be very professional looking, he was taking notes while glancing at her now and then with a pleased smile. The next had long white hair and seemed too be staring at her with a look that ranged somewhere between mild amusement and blatant scrutiny, which kind of frightened her. The next had a long black ponytail and... wait! Wasn't he that conceited jerk from her dance class? Yep, it was him alright, giving her an appreciative but mock smile that just screamed 'Well, well, well, look who's here...'

That was just what she didn't need to see. She barely bit back an annoying frown that wanted to replace her current 'I-am-stunning-and-you-want-me' smile. She managed a polite bow and tightly thanked them before walking off the stage to meet a more controlled Celeste.

Her friend promptly began to gush over her performance. "Oh, Zara! You were fabulous! I almost can't believe it! You're sure to get in!"

Zara herself was too hung up on seeing who was in charge to respond immediately. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to get in anymore. That didn't last long. 'Pull yourself together! This would be a great opportunity! And better than working in some boring department store, remember that...'

With a bit of a delayed smile, she replied, "Well, of course!"

Celeste wasn't able to respond. A man with a clipboard called to her. It was her turn.

Instantly, all her control went out the window.

"DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS, PLEASE! I'LL PAY YOU TO LET ME OUT OF THIS RIGHT NOW!"

Rei seemed to consider taking her up on that, but Zara wouldn't hear of it.

"You get your little angelic butt out there and wow their socks off, that's an order!"

Celeste was about to retort that she wasn't in the Veidan Galaxy and therefore wasn't about to be ordered around, but before she could, Zara whirled Celeste in the right direction and pushed her out into the view of Taiki, Yaten, and Seiya.

The Three Lights looked up to see the best deer-caught-in-headlights impression they'd ever seen.

There was a long pause.

They were beginning to think that the girl was actually some sort of statue.

Yaten pointedly looked at his watch. "Taiki..."

Taiki held up a hand. "Give her some slack... She's probably an amateur." He ignored Yaten and Seiya's twin groans. "Everyone deserves a fair chance." He turned to the girl whom he had recognized as his slightly uncoordinated dance partner with a ghost of a smile. "Please state your name, age, and the title of the song you're singing," he prompted her.

Celeste stiffly forced her legs to move to the microphone that stood center stage. She wet her suddenly dry lips before hesitantly speaking in a quavering tone.

"My name--" Everyone winced at the sudden feedback from the microphone. A moment later, she tried again, certain that she should have stayed at the apartment today. "My name is Sorano Celeste, age 18, and I'm singing..." She paused and tried to remember, her throat going dry. "I'm singing 'Flight of Stars.'"

Celeste waited for her music, opened her mouth, and began to sing.

All conversation stopped. Even Minako and Rei stopped disputing who gave the best audition to turn and stare, open-mouthed, toward the stage at Celeste who was pouring out her heart in song. The Three Lights were at a loss. Taiki had dropped his pencil and forgot to write notes, Yaten forgot to make snide comments, and Seiya for once forgot to think about the women in his life.

Only Zara seemed unsurprised. She stood just offstage with a little smile that said 'she always worries for nothing' on her face.

Once Celeste realized that she was not sucking, she smiled and began to enjoy herself, moving to the beat of the music and emoting the lyrics. Her stage presence positively sparkled. She ended her song on a high note with just the right amount of vibrato, and although it was not as high or as powerful as Zara's high notes, the tone of it was no less beautiful and she was able to sustain it through the entire ending bars of music.

There was a moment of silence when the music concluded. Zara turned toward Rei and Minako to see what they thought, however, they no longer harbored a twin expression of shock. Instead, both of them were admitting a strong... battle aura?!? 'Whoopsie...' thought Zara. 'Perhaps a little competition wasn't the best thing for Sailor Senshi?'

Meanwhile, Taiki got to his feet and looked at the Three Lights' manager. "Close the audition."

He blinked. "You have decided?"

All three of them nodded and the manager grinned in happiness.

"Her, Sorano Celeste," said Taiki, pointing onstage.

"Yes, Aino Minako!" said Yaten, at the same time.

"Ah, Hino Rei!" guessed the manager at that moment.

"That Heno Zara person," declared Seiya, just as the other three made their pick.

They all blinked at each other, but before they could rectify the situation, four high-pitched shrieks pierced the air and Zara, Minako, and Rei came running out onstage to join Celeste in a huge group hug.

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO SING WITH THE THREE LIGHTS!!!"

The men sighed.

Seiya motioned his cohorts closer. "Huddle up, gentlemen..."

"We can't use them all!" Yaten said.

"Can't we?" Seiya challenged. "Mr. Tasheo said that girl bands are all the rage now... Why not use all four of them? One could lead with me, the other three could be backup singers."

"That really wasn't the original idea though," Taiki exclaimed thoughtfully. "But, we could try this. We could make them into their own group, therefore all of them get equal show, and then we would do combined concerts. Consequently, we get the 'girl band' factor while at the same keeping our own style. Equal stage time, completely new look."

Seiya and Yaten both considered this before agreeing that this sounded like the best plan.

"We would have to work with them though, let them know who would lead, etc..." Yaten pointed out, annoyed at the whole situation before looking over at Minako who was at the minute jumping for joy at the other side of the room. He then smiled.

"Which one would lead then?" Seiya asked.

All three of them glanced up at the girls who were still congratulating each other.

"You two have to admit that Sorano sang the best out of them," Taiki pointed out, to which Yaten and Seiya reluctantly nodded. "And the other three are still strong singers who would blend well with each other." Two more nods. "So are we agreed?"

"How will the other three take this?"

Taiki paused, but Seiya straightened with a grin. "Only one way to find out." He turned toward the stage and declared, "Sorano, you are the new girl lead singer; Heno, Rei-san, and Minako-san... you three will be backup."

The girls paused to digest this, glanced at one another, then...

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Seiya smirked at his two friends. "Hmm... I think they took that... rather well."

Two pairs of eyes rolled themselves in his general direction.

--------------------------------------------------------

"I'm exhausted!" Zara cried sleepily as she and Celeste made their way back into their apartment.

"I'm to excited to be tired!" exclaimed Celeste excitedly, with an almost accident-free twirl. "We're going to be famous!"

"That twirl needs work and you're already famous in your galaxy, so what's the bid deal with this one?" Zara said a bit under her breath, but Celeste still heard her.

"Hey! Don't kill my mood! It's not singing I'm famous for in my galaxy and what's the matter anyway? You should be just as happy as I am!" Celeste said indignantly, trying to figure out why her friend was in such a bad mood.

"Well... I am! I'm just tired and we both have school tomorrow, which is more important than a band, so I think we should just go to bed," Zara replied haughtily, obviously not wanting to discuss the matter.

Celeste was a bit concerned now because Zara had willingly put school ahead of singing. "Um... Zara, since when did school become more important to you then being famous? You'd almost think you DIDN'T want to be in the band for some reason..." she commented, trying to be as delicate as possible.

"Well, maybe I DON'T want to be in a band! Maybe I want to concentrate more on the mission than play a few songs for earthlings with a couple of conceited jerks! And maybe you should just leave me alone!!!" Zara yelled out before stomping her way into her room to get some much needed sleep.

Celeste looked after her friend in shock wondering what that was all about. She hardly ever blew up like that without good reason unless... She blinked as something Zara said came to her attention. 'Conceited jerks...'

"Oh dear... _That_ again," Celeste said knowingly before shaking her head then walking into her own room to get some sleep. She had a long day ahead of her.

To Be Continued...


	6. Lunch Equals Pain

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Chapter Six

Minako was in her element. Lunchtime at school was usually quite peaceful, but with the outbreak of news that three classmates would soon be idols alongside the Three Lights, a large adoring crowd had gathered around her, Zara, and Celeste. Smiling her zillion-watt-smile, she soaked up the praise and answered questions... with only a few embellishments. Who would know that the Lights hadn't actually stood up and applauded her performance? She was sure Rei was having similar attention lavished on her at her private school and hoped she was having just as much fun. 

Zara found much amusement in watching Minako get attention. She was enjoying herself too, but it was more fun to watch Minako try to answer everyone at once. 'She sure knows how to be an idol,' she thought, wondering how long Minako had practiced for this sort of thing. Zara effortlessly poured out charm to the girls surrounding her. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad being around that conceited jerk all the time... After all, it's not like she would have to be alone with him or anything... She remembered snapping at Celeste the previous night and thought that maybe she should apologize, or at least make sure Celeste knew she didn't mean it... 

Looking over at Celeste, she blinked in surprise. While she and Minako were quite comfortable in the sea of admirers, Celeste looked as though her lunch was the most fascinating thing on the planet, keeping mostly silent. Poking her in the arm, Zara sent her thoughts directly to Celeste, their close bond making something like that possible. 

'Hey... What's the matter?' 

Celeste glanced at her before sending her thoughts back. 'I'm not used to all this attention, that's all... I'm starting to feel claustraphobic.' 

'Claustra-hoobie-whatie?' 

Celeste smiled, knowing that Zara was purposly messing up the word to make her laugh. 'You know you've always been better at this sort of thing than me. I'm pretty much alone up in my galaxy when not performing my duties. I don't do a lot of social interaction.' 

'You need a boyfriend.' 

Usually, when Zara said something like that, Celeste would have laughed, a love life not really being possible for a senshi, but recently, she had been recalling things... Things she wasn't sure she wanted to remember, or was sure she was supposed to remember at all. They were so disjointed, like the floor of the editing room where different scenes of a movie had been cut out and thrown together haphazardly. She wasn't quite sure what all the different images meant, also, she didn't know she'd like what the whole picture would add up to. She knew there was a battle, there was Zara and Galaxia and herself... but someone else was there too... 

Celeste shuddered at the memories, suddenly feeling cold. 'I think I'll pass...' Suddenly, she froze and a searing pain swept through her head, causing her to gasp. 

Concerned, Zara asked out loud, "Celeste? What's wrong?" 

She couldn't answer, her senses were swept with a vision and she clutched her head in both hands. Recognizing what was happening to her, Zara stood up and applied the charm to the crowd of fans again, effectively deflecting the attention from her friend. 

"Celeste gets headaches sometimes... Would you please excuse us? She should go to the nurse's office." 

Everyone politely stepped away and Zara was able to help Celeste to her feet and around the side of the music building, Minako following close behind. 

"What's going on?" Minako asked as Celeste was still recovering. 

"A vision," explained Zara. "They're very painful for her." She looked at Celeste who was leaning against the building's wall. "What is it this time?" 

"Youma..." she managed. 

"Again??" 

"Different... Stronger... A lesser minion... not henchmen this time..." 

"Huh?" Minako was clearly lost on the broken description. 

"We battled some random youma the other night. You know, the kind that evil villans can create by the barrelful with no apparent effort? Well, the guy in Celeste's vision is one of those guys who are under the top evil guy. Stronger than your run-of-the-mill henchman, but just as annoying." 

"Basically..." said Celeste, her eyesight cleared up by now. "We should hurry and find the others. My visions may be of the future, but not the distant future." 

Nodding, the three girls ran off in search of the other senshi. They didn't notice the form at the music building's window, just within the shadows. Seiya thought their plan sounded good and also went off to find his cronies... They might be needed.

To be continued...


	7. How Many Of Us Are There?

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Seven

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

The battle was a tough one, but thanks to a little distraction from Tuxedo Mask, a little added help from the mysterious Three Lights, and a little Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss, the giant bumblebee that shot poisonous stingers was defeated. Where villains thought up these weird looking minions, they'd never know.

While Tuxedo Mask and the Starlights disappeared into the night, and the senshi congratulated one another, Venus counted on her fingers, mumbling the names of all the planets. "Okay, minus the Outer Senshi, Chibi-Usa, Chibi-Chibi, and Sailor Galaxia because they're not here, there's still ten of us, plus Tuxedo Mask... And yet, we still manage to barely escape with our tiaras intact. What's up with that?"

Mercury shrugged. "I guess we should just be grateful that the less powerful villains showed up first, when we were still learning our powers."

"Even so, if all seventeen of us, plus Tuxie, were fighting, I'd expect to be able to take care of any youma problem in nothing flat. Boom, boom, boom!" She illustrated with her Love-Me Chain. "Like that! But nooooooo..."

Phosphora had overheard the math and calculated the number of senshi. "Wait a minute, are you including the Sailor Starlights in this equation?"

"Well, yeah."

"You know them??"

"Oh, sure!" Venus's smile was almost broader than her face. "We met them last year. Taiki's the serious one, Seiya's the handsome one, and Yaten's the absolutely adorable one!"

Angel, hearing this description, glanced at Phosphora, whose battle aura, predictably, was gaining in strength by the second.

"You mean..." said Phosphora through tightly clenched teeth, "That the conceited jerk knew who we were the ENTIRE time and he didn't even SAY anything?!"

"Zara, chill!" said Angel. "They probably didn't know it was us the whole time, even if they knew the others. And besides, there's good news."

"What good news?"

"This means that 'the jerk' transforms into a woman."

Phosphora blinked, her mind processing this bit of information, and then she burst out in a gale of giggles. "Oh, that's TOO much! And doesn't he deserve it!"

While Phosphora laughed, the hairs on the back of Angel's neck stood up and she turned around, sure that someone had been watching them. But she didn't see anything. Shrugging it off as the paranoia that sometimes came as an occupational hazard for the Senshi of Danger, she joined the others as they were heading off to power-down and get a milkshake.

-----------------------------------------------

Rapidly approaching the earth, Catastrophe sat upon his bejeweled thrown and watched the footage Xerkxak had taken for him while the Sailor Senshi had battled the token youma he'd sent. It hadn't been his intent to try and defeat or even weaken the Sailor Senshi with this attack. The purpose was to learn how they fight and what their weaknesses were.

With a slow smile, his grey gaze focused on the winged Senshi. He reached out with one clawed hand and traced the outline of her projected face. "Still so beautiful. She'll be even lovelier with tears streaming from those aqua depths."

Xerkxak appeared before his master, bowing low. "Shall I prepare the next youma, sire?"

"No."

The minion looked up, questioningly.

"No more attacks. I don't want them to know how close we are. Let them fall into a false sense of security, and then... We shall strike them, personally."

"Yes, master." Xerkxak had a feeling that there was more about the upcoming battle that was personal than his master let on.

-----------------------------------------------

"Ouch!"

The Three Lights rolled their eyes as rehearsal came once again to a grinding halt. Celeste hung her head as Rei rubbed her sore foot.

"That WAS my foot!"

And Rei's wasn't the only foot Celeste had stepped on during this dance rehearsal for the upcoming concert. It was to be the first joint concert between the Three Lights and the Constellations, as Zara, Celeste, Minako, and Rei were to be called, so of course, it was very important and everyone was nervous, but everyone was beginning to suspect that this was more than just nerves for the golden-brown haired girl. Celeste just wasn't up to par, dance-wise, with the other girls.

"I can't help it," she said, softly. "I dance like a cow, I know it. But I can't do much to change that!"

Zara put an arm around her friend's shoulders. "You don't dance like a cow." She glared behind Celeste's back when some of the others gave somewhat incredulous looks. "You just need to concentrate."

"This is no good."

Zara turned her icy stare on Seiya. "Excuse me?"

Seiya gave a shrug. "If she's this bad during rehearsal, just think how she'll be during the performances. We can't take the chance that she'll get it together by then."

"Seiya..." Taiki hissed warningly.

The dark-haired singer turned to his friend and threw his arms into the air, exasperated. "Well, what do you propose we do, Taiki? We don't have time to send her to dance classes! We can't fire her, she has a contract and, thanks to the advertising, the public will expect her to be in the group. Any bright ideas?"

Zara planted her hands on her hips, frowning. "You know, you don't have to be such a jerk about it!"

Turning back around, Seiya matched Zara's position and glared right back at her. "And you, Miss high-and-mighty. You act like you own the place!"

"I do not! I'm protecting my friend, a concept obviously foreign to you, since all you care about is yourself!"

"I happen to care very much about this concert, thank you very much, and I'd also like to get out of rehearsal sometime before the end of the next century, something that is not likely to happen as long as your 'friend' keeps screwing up!"

Behind Zara, Celeste sniffled and the two combatants turned to look at her.

"I'm s-sorry," she stuttered, her eyes filling with tears. "I'm sorry I'm so much trouble." She ran out of the practice room before the tears started to fall.

Taiki smacked Seiya upside the head. "Idiot..."

He walked out after Celeste, Minako ran after him, and Yaten surreptitiously followed Minako. Taking this as a signal for break time, Rei sighed and headed for the hallway vending machine. Both Seiya and Zara fumed as they realized everyone had left them alone together.

Harrumphing, they turned away from each other, arms crossed over their respective chests.

"I'm not talking to you," Zara announced. "But you're STILL a jerk."

"Fine by me, Princess."

Zara knew he was referring to her attitude, not her actual rank, but it still made her even angrier. Celeste was right, this wasn't her galaxy and she couldn't order anyone to do anything. Not even to be nice.

Seiya was never regretting more that the Three Lights had to have these idiot girls with their band. He glanced at Zara as she flipped her flaming hair in his general direction and felt annoyed that, even as he hated her, he found himself appreciating the way her hair caught the light. Oh, no... He was NOT going to say she looked beautiful when she was angry. Absolutely ridiculous...

------------------------------------------------

Taiki, Minako, and Yaten found Celeste sitting in a stall of the women's bathroom. At first, Taiki and Yaten had been reluctant to enter, but Minako had convinced them that since they are women at least part of the time, it was okay.

The boys hesitated at the sound of the crying, so Minako knocked lightly on the door of the stall. "Cel-chan? Are you okay?"

"N-no. P-please leave me alone," came the broken reply, accompanied by a hiccup.

Minako shrugged at Taiki and Yaten, at a loss. She was certainly adept at making her friends feel better, but she barely knew Celeste and was therefore unsure what to do.

Yaten took her place in front of the stall door. "Sorano-san? You know, Seiya's an idiot, he doesn't know anything. You can come out of there."

"He's not an idiot, Kou-san. YOU can kick higher than I can."

Unable to deny the truth of that statement, and not sure if he should be proud or take offence to it, Yaten gestured for Taiki to have a go.

Taiki sighed. "Celeste-san... We can't do this concert without you."

"It'd be a lot better if you did."

"No, it wouldn't. Lots of people are expecting to see you and hear your voice. The group's sound won't be as full if you aren't there."

"But I can't dance."

"Yes, you can, you're just not as good as the others." He paused, thinking out loud. "But there may be something else we can do."

"There is?" The voice on the other side of the door sounded vaguely hopeful.

"Yes," he said, his idea of a plan taking firmer shape in his head. "Come on out and we'll talk about it."

After a few seconds, the door crept open and Celeste, her face slightly red, peeked out. Three fellow performers smiled at her.

"Okay," she said.

------------------------------------

The seven performers gathered around in the practice room five minutes later. Seiya and Zara still weren't talking to each other, but that only served for less bickering, so no one really minded.

"All right," said Taiki. "First, I think it's time to stop tiptoeing around an obvious issue here." He took a precautionary glance around to make sure they were alone before continuing. "We all know that we're senshi, correct?"

Zara and Celeste exchanged a look before nodding.

"Good," he said. "Then we can quickly get to my idea here. Seiya," he looked at his sulking compatriot, "you do have a point, rude though it may have been. Celeste-san simply isn't as good as you other three. However," he looked at Celeste, "there is one thing none of us considered."

Everyone leaned forward slightly, wondering what it was they could have overlooked.

"We haven't yet discussed costuming for the Constellations," he said, stunning everyone with this sudden turn in subject.

"Taiki," said Seiya, slightly annoyed. "What does costuming have to do with anything?"

"Plenty." He looked back at Celeste. "You have wings as a senshi, yes?"

Celeste furrowed her brow slightly. "Yes."

"And they give you added agility and grace, right?"

Her eyes brightened, beginning to see where he was going with this. "Right!"

"Wait a minute," said Yaten. "She can't very well go out on stage in her sailor fuku. Why not just go on the news and shout to the world that we're the sailor senshi!"

"That's why I mentioned the costuming."

"And I don't have to be in my fuku to have wings," said Celeste, her excitement growing. She went to her bag and pulled out the Star Wand. "Watch this! Sky Princess Configuration!" In a flash of silver stars, she transformed into Princess Celeste, complete in white silk dress and iridescent wings.

"That's almost perfect," said Taiki, examining the result. "We'll need to change it a bit, though, for performance purposes."

"Change it, how?"

"Well, I'm no costume designer, but I'd say something like shorten the sleeves, add in some sheer pieces, slit it up the sides, and do something else with your hair. But with this as your costume, no one would guess that those wings aren't really fake." He turned to the rest of them as Celeste de-transformed. "You see, since your group's name is the Constellations, we can dress you in costumes corresponding to earth, fire, air, and water. Obviously, Celeste would be air."

"I get fire!" claimed Rei.

Zara made a slight face, but no one could argue why. "Minako should take water, she'll look better in blue than I would."

"You should have earth anyway, Zara; green makes your eyes really stand out."

"Then it's decided!" said Taiki, smiling. "And there will be no more rude comments on other people's abilities." He glanced at Seiya who rolled his eyes. "As we've seen, they slow rehearsals down and we only have two weeks before the concert. Let's get back to work. I'll make sure in the future that we have the building secured so that Celeste can work with the wings and not risk discovery."

Rehearsal continued, with Seiya and Zara both feeling moderately smug, having at least partially won the argument, and Celeste feeling much more confident about the upcoming concert.

However, considering the threat to the universe, dancing should really have been the least of anyone's worries.

To be continued...


	8. Sailor Senshi Big Time!

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Eight

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Two weeks later, despite the fact that all available senshi were supposed to be on patrol; Ami, Makoto, Luna, Artemis, Mamoru and Usagi, and even the Outer Senshi, were all at the Three Lights and Constellations debut concert. Sure, they felt a little guilty, but there was no way they were going to miss it. They assuaged a bit of the guilt by saying their fellow senshi NEEDED some people in their cheering section. Not even Luna and Artemis were balking about shirking their duties.

There had been no attacks since the one a few weeks ago, what were the odds of being attacked that night? Ami had actually worked it out, the odds weren't that great. There, even less guilt.

The screams were deafening as the lights lowered, but everyone noticed that there were quite a few guys in the audience too. And no wonder, the photo spreads on the Constellations were pretty sexed up. Well, sex sells better than anything else it does. Michiru had whispered to Makoto earlier that Haruka had bought a big poster of the four girls to hang up in their house, although Haruka had insisted directly afterward that it was only to support her fellow senshi.

The concert opened with a bang, the Three Lights onstage singing one of their most popular songs, 'Chasing After You.' However, in the middle of the song, the music stopped and four female voices came in, in perfect four-part harmony. The Constellations rose up out of the center of the stage and the music came up again, all seven of them continuing the song together.

The girls looked spectacular in their costumes. Minako's costume was done all in different blues, a Chinese-style dress, slit high up the sides, with lots of lighter blue shimmer gauze for long gauntlets, lining the inside of the dress and forming a small train, and streaming from the back of the gown, almost like watery wings. Apparently, no one had been able to make her take off her trademark red ribbon, though.

Zara's costume was more contemporary in style, allowing for more movement as she did more acrobatic dance moves than the other three. Her emerald cropped top dripped with sequins and seemed to be held together by many gold laces, her skirt was made of many sheer veils in varying shades of green and topaz. Her hair had been pulled up and braided into a complex style, then wound around in a bun, leaving tendrils to curl around her face. It was a very different look for her, as she usually left her hair down and all over the place, but it was very sophisticated this way.

Rei's costume was form-fitting like Minako's, but with spaghetti straps that criss-crossed across her back, and it seemed to be made of a more durable fabric, at least parts of it was, since some of her costume was supposed to look like it was flaming, with tongues of fire curling up her body. Her red gown had lots of gold glitter all over it, and she sparkled under the lights. Her hair had been pulled up into a high ponytail and curled, the smoke from the fire.

Celeste's white silk gown had been altered, as Taiki had said, with a slit up the front, revealing an expanse of her right leg. The capped sleeves had been shortened to reveal more of her shoulders and finished with long flowing sleeves in sheer shimmer fabric, similar to Minako's gauntlets. The gown had been dappled with silver sequins that sparkled like tiny stars to give it a more performance flare, and silk of the skirt seemed to flutter as she danced. Only the senshi knew that her lightness on her feet was due to the wings on her back, not high dexterity. With the wings, she appeared to be as good a dancer as the others, a fact that brought a true smile to her face as she performed.

The number went off without a hitch. The senshi in the stands had to admit that the groups sounded great together and the rest of the crowd agreed, if the applause was any indication.

The rest of the concert went underway, with the two groups switching off and intermingling flawlessly. Most of the Constellations' songs had small solos for each performer, but there were a few songs where one girl took the lead vocal and the rest backed her up, much like the Three Lights did with Seiya. The musical director, Ms. Yukika, had outdone herself with the orchestrations; the music was a spectacular setting for the performers' voices.

There was one song that had not been in the original set, but Celeste had brought it to the table, thinking it would be beautiful, if arranged for their voices. Seiya had raised an eyebrow, and mumbled a comment about it being presumptuous to assume the music director's job, but Ms. Yukika had thought it was a lovely piece and a good idea.

When asked where Celeste had found it, she lowered her eyes and said that it was merely an old song from where she came from. No one but her knew it had actually been written for her, a long time ago, and the author was long dead. It had been her fault, so she secretly had wanted to sing the song as a tribute, even if it was a private one.

It was partly through that song, halfway through the second act, when disaster struck.

A stage light crashed to the floor, just barely missing the girls. Amid screams of fright from the crowd, the Lights ran out onto the stage and Seiya examined the faulty machinery.

"Look," he said to Taiki in an undertone as Yaten and the girls ran damage control. He pointed to the place where the light would have been attached to the apparatus. "Melted through. This wasn't an accident."

"A youma? This is too much for a human to do, especially undetected."

"That's what I'm thinking."

As he said it, three more lights fell and this time all of them had to dodge the flying sparks and heavy lighting. The remaining lights were switched off and the performers went backstage, as their manager went to tell the audience that, due to technical difficulties, blah blah blah. The senshi were already on their way out of the stadium.

-------------------------------------------------

The Lights and the girls gathered in the Constellations' dressing room, it being slightly larger.

"It couldn't have been a youma, the other senshi are all out there on patrol. They would have dusted anything in the area before it could have gotten near here," Minako was saying after hearing Seiya and Taiki's suspicions.

Just then, the remaining Inner senshi and the Outers burst through the door with Mamoru. "Thank God someone had the foresight to put us on the backstage list!" said Haruka.

"What are you all doing here?" demanded Rei.

Everyone had the decency to look guilty.

"It doesn't matter now," said Luna. "We have to go and defeat whatever youma did this."

"Hold it, people," said Zara. "You're all overlooking one thing here. That incident wasn't meant to hurt anybody."

"And lots of onlookers never stopped a youma from appearing in public before," said Ami.

"And don't you think if its attack had failed, it would have continued to try something else?" Zara continued. "Youma generally don't have this much finesse. This was meant as a message."

"A message of what?"

"'I'm baaaaa-aaaaaack'?"

"Not funny, Minako!"

"Say..." said Michiru, thoughtfully. "Weren't there four of you?"

Rei, Zara, and Minako looked around the room and Michiru was right. Celeste was missing.

"I don't remember her following us backstage," said Minako, beginning to panic.

"And why didn't Celeste say anything about this attack?" asked Rei. "Isn't she supposed to get premonitions?"

"Well, we could say the same about you, Rei," Ami commented.

"No, Rei's right," said Zara, her brow furrowing slightly. "Celeste would have known about this, and known who did it. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

Zara shrugged. "She might have been blocked somehow. You know, with a spell or something. I've done it before, though it's not easy, she's pretty well protected by the power of the Holy Crystal thingie."

"Holy Crystal?" repeated Setsuna.

"Just how many crystals are there?" Hotaru wanted to know.

"I don't know," Zara said. "But she carries a piece of the Holy one inside the Star Wand and that's where she derives her powers, which is why she can do a lot more than the rest of you." She flipped her ponytail behind one shoulder. "Of course, I can do whatever I want because I'm the heir to the Veidan throne... but that's another story. The actual Holy Crystal is kept where she comes from, beyond the galaxy cauldron; I've never been there. It might be against the rules, or something, but anyway, it has some kind of protection spell on her, it's the same for every Senshi of Danger."

"Whatever," said Matoko, impatient from Zara's ramblings, however interesting they might have been. "We have other things to worry about besides crystals and what they may or may not do."

"Oh, right. Well, in order for a spell to work on Celeste, she has to know the person really well. You know, kind of like a lowering of the guard."

"Then, if that's true, it's someone Celeste knows who did this?"

"Look, this is just a hypothesis..."

"Never mind all this! We have to go and find that youma!"

Everyone was beginning to talk at once. Mamoru stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly to get everyone's attention.

"This is getting us no where," he said. "For all you know, Celeste could have just gone out by herself to fight the youma. What's really important here is that Usako is safe..." At this, he turned to look at the petite blonde who had been nestled under his shoulder, prior to his having to break up the argument.

Usagi's conspicuous absence and the open door behind Mamoru made everyone rush for the stage door of one accord.

To be continued...


	9. No Plan and No Backup is Not Good

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Nine

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Sailor Angel ran through Tokyo, not knowing where she was headed, but knowing she had to find the youma before the others. It was beyond foolish to run headlong into a fight with no backup whatsoever, but the fact that whoever staged the attack had successfully blocked her made her worry. Who could have done it? Whom did she know well enough?

She wouldn't risk the others getting hurt. They needed to stay with Usagi and keep her safe, that was the main objective. Focusing her power, she tried to hone in on negative energy that a youma would produce by being in the city and disturbing the light energy that Usagi filled it with.

Nothing. She was still blocked. But by whom?

Suddenly, a flurry of feathers bolted out of the sky and landed just in front of her. She fell back into a defensive stance, but relaxed when she saw who it was.

"Eternal Sailor Moon! What are you doing here?" she cried in dismay.

"Looking for you! I was afraid the youma had kidnapped you."

"Where are the others?"

She looked sheepish. "I, uh... left them behind."

Angel groaned and glanced about them, trying to see if a threat was nearby. "This is bad! I'm not nearly strong enough to protect you by myself and I can't see who it is who's threatening us. I don't know by whom, but I've been blocked."

A voice like velvet over iron cut through the night air. "Precisely my plan. Thank you for being so predictable."

Both senshi looked up to see a tall man in a black cloak standing atop a nearby building. For a moment, they were reminded of Tuxedo Mask, with the cape blowing dramatically in the wind, but this man had leathery bat wings protruding from either side of his head rather than a top hat, his black hair fell past his shoulders, and his gray eyes were as cold as ice.

He leapt effortlessly from the building to the ground and slowly walked toward the two girls. "How perfect. The two senshi I most wanted to draw out, and here you are, handed to me on a silver platter." He laughed softly, the sound low and sinister.

Angel took up a defensive stance in front of Sailor Moon. "If you think we're going to go quietly, you've got another thing coming!"

He just smiled as he continued walking towards them. "Ah, yes, you always were stubborn when it was most inconvenient."

"What are you talking about? Don't even try to trick me!"

He seemed amused at this. "So you don't remember."

"Remember what?" She brandished her wand threateningly as he continued to move. "Don't come any closer! I'm warning you!"

"Warning me?" He laughed again and made no move to obey her. "You said yourself you don't have enough power to fight me. It really would be so much easier for you if you simply did as I said."

"Yeah, right!" Seeing he wasn't going to stop, Angel whispered to Sailor Moon, "Get out of here. I'll hold him off as long as I can."

"But..." Sailor Moon's large eyes were uncertain.

"Go! It's my duty to protect you! Find the others!"

The moment Sailor Moon moved to take flight, Angel turned to the demon and called out, "Celestial Star Flash!"

The silver stars didn't do much damage, if any at all, but they seemed to distract the demon enough so that the princess could safely escape. However, he didn't seem unduly concerned.

"Alone at last," he drawled.

"You're disgusting."

"You didn't used to think so."

"Trying to confuse me won't work!"

He laughed. "You're already confused, my dear. You think I'm lying? How do you think I managed to block you so successfully? Well, I may as well re-introduce myself if you're not going to remember me on your own." He gave her a sweeping bow. "You may call me Catastrophe."

She nearly gasped. The father of Chaos, the entity that nearly destroyed the galaxy and the strongest warriors it possessed, was standing right in front of her! And she intended to fight him all on her own? He was right, she might as well surrender. But it was the duty of a senshi to fight to the death, if necessary.

Straightening from the bow, he gathered a small orb of dark power in his palm. It was no bigger than a crystal ball, but it crackled with the strength of a large attack. "Now, this won't kill you," he said in a voice that was deceptively gentle, as though he were explaining a concept to a three year old. "But it will incapacitate you for a while and you'll sustain quite a few injuries as well. Being the gentleman that I am, I'll offer you a chance to give up now, rather than put you through such pain. Interested?"

She glared at him. "Not on your life!"

"Oh, well."

He hurled the orb at her at the same moment she yelled, "Celestial Voices Sing!"

It was one of her stronger attacks, but his power bypassed it as though it was nothing but air. The orb hit her full blast, and with a scream, she was knocked flat on her back, twenty feet away. The last thing she saw before blessed unconsciousness took her away from the incredible pain, was Catastrophe picking up the Star Wand from her nerveless hand.

Catastrophe swept the motionless Angel into his arms and they both disappeared from Tokyo. He didn't notice, hadn't even sensed, the tall figure in the shadows that had been watching the scene.

-----------------------------------------------------

The rest of the senshi were running through the city, Mercury tapping away on her computer as fast as she could, trying to get a lock on Celeste's and/or Usagi's vital signs.

"There's too much interference!" she said. "I can't get a definite lock on anything, but at least one of them appears to be within a five mile radius."

"Great!" said Phosphora, sarcastically. "They could be anywhere between Tokyo Tower and here!"

"Don't be so pessimistic, we'll find them."

"How? It's not as though Usagi's going to fall right in our laps!"

At that moment, Eternal Sailor Moon landed right on top of Mars.

"Ow!! You are SUCH an odango atama! Can't you even land decently?" Mars also cast a glare at Phosphora. "You just HAD to say that, didn't you?"

Uranus helped Moon and Mars to their feet as the others gathered around, immediately beginning to ask questions and scold simultaneously.

"Why did you leave without us?"

"You know you're not supposed to do that!"

"Where were you?"

"Where's Celeste?"

It took another piercing whistle from Tuxedo Mask to quiet everyone down. A few minutes of explanations and it was clear there was a huge problem.

"Angel was left fighting the baddie all by herself?" asked Phosphora, in shock. "She'll be toasted!"

"You don't seem to have much faith in your friend's abilities," Star Fighter remarked.

She glowered at the now-female senshi. "This is not the time for your snotty comments. And I know Angel's limitations. She's mostly a messenger, after all, she's not really built for combat."

"Then we've got to find her, and fast," said Jupiter.

"You're wasting your time," a new voice rang out. Whoever had said it was female, but she didn't sound familiar to anyone. Her voice was almost cold in its lack of emotion.

The senshi took up defensive postures about their princess and tried to see where the voice was coming from.

"Who said that?" asked Venus.

A tall figure stepped out from a shadowy alley and into the moonlight to face the senshi. She had dark blue eyes, the pupils ringed with gold, and ash blonde hair. She was also wearing a stylized version of the sailor fuku in navy blue and black.

"I did," she said in her emotionless voice.

"And you are?" prompted Mars.

"Warrior Sailor Wind."

Pluto gave a slight gasp at this statement and the others turned to look at her.

"What are you doing here?" Pluto asked Wind.

"My duty."

Turning to the rest of the senshi, Pluto began to explain. "Warriors are only called upon when failure is imminent."

"Why haven't we heard of you before?"

Pluto answered for Wind. "It is forbidden to know of a Warrior's existence, rather like my position at the Time Gates. Each planet has raised one Warrior, the ultimate fighting machine, to protect it in the absence of the senshi and their princess. Warriors only leave their planet for another when the other planet is severely threatened."

"So, which planet are you from?" Jupiter asked Wind.

"Uranus. And the reason you can't read any of my vital signs," she said to Mercury who was typing on her computer with a confused expression on her face, "is because I am not alive. No one had been born since Sailor Uranus with senshi blood and therefore no one had the ability nor the constitution to transform and fight. So, I was created; manufactured, if you will."

"Well, now that we're all caught up," Phosphora said, fuming slightly, "do you think we could get back to the issue at hand? At this very moment, my best friend could be scattered all over the pavement!"

"As I said, you're already too late. Had there been a chance to save her, I wouldn't have wasted all this time."

"In English, please?"

"Catastrophe took her with him when he left."

"WHAT?? You sat and WATCHED him take her??"

"It would have been illogical to fight the demon on my own."

"UGH!"

"Phosphora, calm down," said Star Fighter.

"No, I won't!" she said, rounding on Fighter. "My best friend is in the clutches of some impossible-to-fight demon and I have no way to help her! Why don't YOU try that on for size and attempt to calm down!"

"I HAVE," Fighter returned. "I lost nearly everyone I ever loved when my planet was attacked, and the princess I defended was lost. And I didn't sit around and whine about not being able to do anything about it. I gathered up who I could and went off in search of her." She grasped Phosphora's shoulders tightly. "We WILL find her, but not without a plan. Got it?"

Shocked and more than a little surprised at Fighter's speech, Phosphora merely nodded.

"The one good thing in this mess is," said Luna, "is that Angel did her duty as a senshi and protected the princess." Everyone cast looks at Eternal Sailor Moon. "Sailor Moon, from now on, you are not to go anywhere without the protection of at least one other senshi, understand? Your safety is paramount."

Sailor Moon nodded, from under one wing of Tuxedo Mask's cape.

"Good," said Artemis. "Now, let's go back to Rei's temple. We can start to formulate a plan there."

As everyone started off, Phosphora was surprised when Fighter's arm came briefly around her shoulders in a rough show of camaraderie. It lasted only a moment, but it was not missed by Star Healer.

To be continued...


	10. In the Lair of the Bad Guy

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Ten

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

'_Someone is touching me.'_ It was Angel's first conscious thought, and though the person's touch was gentle and chaste, she kept her eyes closed. She would keep the element of surprise.

Searching within herself, she evaluated her power stores. _'Too low to place an attack of any effectiveness,'_ she decided, though her body would regenerate, given enough time.

The ache of pain from her left wing told her it was broken, or at least sprained. She wasn't surprised, given that the attack she sustained had sent her sliding across the street on her back, but that meant it would be longer before she was completely restored. She also noted that she was restrained. Manacles, she guessed, were shackled around her wrists and ankles. There would be no immediate escaping.

Given that an attack and escape were pretty much impossible at the moment, she opened her eyes to see who it was that had their hands on her arm, at the moment.

She found herself staring into icy blue, yet strangely warm, and very human eyes.

"Ah, you're awake," said the young man. She took in his dark blue hair, his posture, his lithe body beneath his white tunic-like shirt and loose blue pants, and guessed him to be only a little older than she. Well, than she appeared to be.

"Who are you?" she asked, looking around at the cold square cell they were in.

"My name is Yuki, and we're in the dungeon."

She tested the manacles and they crackled with the same dark purple energy that Catastrophe had thrown at her before. Apparently, they were designed to hold someone in place, even at their full power.

"I'm Angel. Why aren't you shackled down?"

He looked mildly angry for a moment, but not with her. "He does, on occasion, chain me down; when he wants to... play." He shuddered slightly and one of his fists clenched. "But for the most part, he keeps me weak enough to control with his mind. It's not a pleasant experience."

"How did you come to be here?"

He sighed. "I was part of an army that fought Catastrophe as he passed through my planet, as the Healer of the army. He thought it would be amusing, as he put it, to have the Healer working against his own friends, and that's the only reason he hasn't killed me yet. Trust me, if I could have fought the methods he used to control me, I would have."

"I believe you." She looked at the shackles and around the cell again, trying to sense a weakness, but found none. She couldn't do anything at her current strength. "Were you tending to my injuries, then, while I was asleep?"

"I did take the liberty, yes, although I don't have my full abilities; that's why it's taking so long." His gaze turned sympathetic for a moment. "You were in pretty bad shape when they brought you in."

"They?"

"His minions. The place is crawling with them."

"Wonderful. Our chances of escape just went from slim to none." She hung her head. "What I'm most confused about is the fact that he didn't kill me when he had the chance. Instead, he's holding me here."

"Judging by your attire, I'm guessing you're a sailor senshi, so he might be planning on using you as leverage when/if other senshi come to your aid."

Angel blinked. "You know about the senshi?"

He smiled, and for a moment, the cell faded under its light. "I should. My sister is a senshi. Sailor Mercury."

At this revelation, Angel then could see the family resemblance. "She never mentioned a brother... but then, it's not as if we've had any real time to talk..."

He gave a slight shrug. "From the reports we get from Luna and Artemis, she may not remember that part of her life, yet. I'm not concerned, but I'd rather not burden her with a sudden sibling before she remembers."

"That's very unselfish of you."

That cold, icy velvet voice once again broke through the conversation. "Yes, yes. Nobility and all those other useless emotions that tend to get in one's way. I should thank the stars I don't have them." Catastrophe stepped out of the shadows and the cell door swung open by itself to allow him entrance. His smile was completely humorless. "I suppose I should actually thank _you _my dear."

She scowled at him. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I know. But I intend to fix that."

Yuki took a step toward the two of them, but one look from Catastrophe's gray eyes sent him walking jerkily backward. Angel could tell that he wasn't moving on his own accord. Once Yuki had sat down rather roughly in a corner, the demon's gaze slid back to Angel.

He leaned very close to her until she could feel his breath on her cheek. Even that was cold. His eyes stared into hers, daring her to look away. One of his hands came up to her throat and she resisted the urge to flinch, remembering the power that could come from those hands. But all his did was rest his hand there, not squeezing, although he could have easily choked the life from her; his hand nearly spanned her entire neck. She couldn't help a shiver as he ran a gentle thumb across her accelerating pulse.

His smile broadened slightly, revealing small teeth of pearly white, flanked by two sharp canines, like a beast. "You haven't changed."

She showed no emotion on her face, but inside her mind was beginning to quake. How had he known her neck was sensitive? Had she really known him sometime in the past? Wouldn't she remember? Unlike the other senshi, she'd never lost her memory, at least, she'd never doubted that until now.

He had leaned even closer and she could feel his lips moving against the skin of her neck as he talked. "I'll make you remember me, my dear."

"Get away from me," she said in a low voice, through clenched teeth.

"I don't think so," he said. He waved one lightly clawed hand in the air and a goblet appeared at his fingertips.

She watched him warily as he drank deeply of the cup, but before she could even utter a squeak of protest, he descended upon her, his lips scorching hers. When she opened her mouth to bite him, the liquid burned a bright path down her throat. She tried not to ingest it, but he stroked her throat until she swallowed convulsively. Then the pain started.

The burning sensation started low, then built in intensity as it traveled through her veins to every inch of her body. Catastrophe drunk in her screams as his mouth plundered hers, seeming to take pleasure in the convulsions that wracked her body though the shackles kept her in place.

When the convulsions had slowed to mere tremors, he lifted his head. He trailed his clawed fingertips down her cheek. "Was it good for you?"

Angel's shoulders were beginning to shake, shudders that had nothing to do with the lingering pain in her body. He took her chin in a firm grip and lifted her head to see the tears that were beginning to fall from her eyes. Leaning in again, he licked one salty droplet from her face and smiled.

"So beautiful."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Why? Because of you, I have the entire galaxy in my grasp."

"This isn't you."

"This is the new me. And you hold the credit."

She couldn't respond. He smiled again and finally stepped away from her. The door opened for him once again and he snapped his fingers as he left. The shackles holding Angel and Yuki were lifted then, and they both slumped to the floor.

"I'll be back soon, my dear." The words were so ominous, they sounded almost like a threat. With that, he disappeared into the shadows.

It was a few minutes before either prisoner could say anything. Finally, Yuki was the one to break the silence.

"You knew him?"

"Yes." The words were barely audible. "A long time ago. That potion he forced on me made me remember."

"Who was he?"

"The man I loved."

To be continued...


	11. Searching for Senshi

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Eleven

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

"That's right, mom," Usagi was saying into the telephone, guarded by Minako, while everyone else was with Rei in the fire room. "I'm staying over at Rei's tonight. We're studying." She rolled her eyes at her mother's exclamations of joy. "Anyway, I'll be home tomorrow. Bye!" She gave Minako a thumbs-up and the two of them went to join the others.

Rei was kneeling at the fire, chanting in a low voice. Usagi and Minako sat on one of the mats surrounding the room. Mamoru instantly wrapped an arm around his Odango. Zara saw Seiya notice this and shake his head. She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Rei sighed in exasperation, slumping slightly. "I can't find her."

"Try again!" said Zara.

"She's not on _Earth_!"

The others were taken slightly aback. "Not on Earth? How is that possible?"

"Yeah," said Makoto. "All of the other bad guys have had an earth base, or at least were in orbit around it. Except for Galaxia, but that was different."

"Well, this guy's different," Rei said. "I can't even sense him in this solar system."

"If he's not in the solar system, how could he attack us? He couldn't be that powerful," said Ami.

"Perhaps he _is_ in the system," Setsuna said. "Only he's in a different dimension, or on a different plain. It's the perfect way to hide, right in sight."

There were a few groans. "That means we have to go to the Time Gate again," Minako muttered. "No offence to your place of work, Setsuna-san, but we face enough danger without the added risk of being lost in time space."

"If it's the only way to find Celeste, though..." said Usagi, trailing off.

"I have an idea," said Ami, standing up. "Let's go to the area where Warrior Wind saw Catastrophe take Celeste... Ah, what did you say your name was?"

"I didn't," intoned Wind. "It's Pandora." She rolled her eyes, showing some form of emotion for the first time. "My creators had a sense of humor. At least they didn't choose 'Galatea.'"

Only Ami, Michiru, and Haruka got the reference. "Okay," said Ami. "Pandora-san can take us back there and I can run a search with my computer to see if there was a rift left in the fabric of time space. Setsuna-san..."

She nodded. "Yes, I will run my own... search."

"Perhaps, even if the rift was sealed, we can find some leftover residue of where he went. Then we can track him."

"Great!" said Usagi. She lifted her delicate eyebrows as everyone turned to look at her. "What?"

"Usagi-chan, you will stay here with Mamoru-san," Luna said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"What??" she whined. "But why?"

"You know why, Odango," Seiya said, not unkindly. He exchanged a look with Mamoru for a spilt-second, then looked away. Only Zara caught it and she wondered what was causing all this sudden heightened interest.

"He's right," Mamoru said, albeit a little grudgingly. "You must be kept away from danger."

"A few of the others should stay with them as well, I think," Artemis said.

"We'll stay," Seiya instantly volunteered for all three Starlights. Taiki gave him a sharp look, but chose to hold his tongue.

A plan taking shape, the remaining group of senshi set out once again for the streets, with Pandora leading the way.

To be continued...


	12. Matchmaking on the Job and Confessions

Author's note: All of Zara's ex-boyfriends mentioned here in this chapter are Easter Eggs for M'Lila. Ten points to anyone who guesses the anime Aki comes from correctly!

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twelve

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Mercury, Wind, and Pluto stood at the center of the street near Tokyo Tower while the rest of the senshi secured the perimeter. There was no telling when or if Catastrophe would return, or if he would return the same way he left, so everyone was on their guard.

"This was the place, you said?" asked Mercury.

"That's correct," said Wind.

Mercury activated her VR visor and began tapping away at her computer. Pluto raised her Time Key and the heart talisman began to glow. She closed her eyes as she ran her own scan of the area.

Phosphora took to her task of patrolling with an almost fierce intensity. She'd never been so mad before. If there was anything she could do to help defeat this baddie, she'd do it. Now it was personal.

From a few feet away from her, Venus sighed. Phosphora looked over at her, but didn't let her guard down even as she spoke.

"What's up, V?" she asked.

Venus pouted. "You're so lucky, is all," she said.

"Huh? My best friend was kidnapped, how does that make me lucky?"

"Oh, no, no... Not that. That's awful. I meant about how you've gotten Seiya to notice you in such a short time. I've been trying to get Yaten to look at me for so much longer, but he's just not interested." She sighed again.

Phosphora didn't hear much of Venus' last sentence. She was stricken by what she'd said about Seiya. "What?!? That conceited jerk?? We hate each other!"

Venus gave her a confused look. "Really? I just thought that it was a natural form of attraction, displayed as frustration. People who appear to hate each other are really just hot under the collar in a steamy way." She winked.

She saw then what V was trying to do. "Oh, no! Uh-uh! You are NOT going to play matchmaker with me!"

"Well, I would, but sweetie, you've already done my job for me. You and Seiya have got it bad for each other, it's just that neither one of you will admit it."

"Whatever, V."

"Come on, Z. Think about it. ALL of your old boyfriends have been what you termed 'conceited jerks.'"

"Name one!"

"Tasuki."

Phosphora sniffed. "THAT was a fling."

"Okay. Aki."

"Fling."

"Ranma. Another conceited guy who turned into a girl, I might add."

"VERY much a fling. Dumped him as soon as I found out he had a fiancée. Several, actually."

"Gohan."

"Hey, Gohan was NOT a conceited jerk!"

"This is precisely why you dumped him."

"No, I dumped him because he knew absolutely nothing about how to deal with women. I think he got it from his father. For heaven's sake, he thought marriage was something you ate!"

"Whatever you say. But don't write him off just yet, Z. Seiya IS quite a guy."

Phosphora snorted. "Yeah. MOST of the time!" She laughed.

"Hey!" said Jupiter. "We're supposed to be working here! You two can giggle on your own time."

Guiltily, Phosphora and Venus turned back to the patrol.

"I'm getting a reading," said Mercury. "But it's so scrambled. This isn't anything I've seen before. Pluto?"

Pluto lowered her Time Key. "Yes. This is a realm of time space that is completely new. As if it was created very recently."

"Or," added Mercury, "too long ago."

"Hypothesis won't help us," said Uranus. "Is there a rift we can use?"

"Maybe," Mercury said, beginning to type again. "There seems to be a kind of spell on it. It's strong, but if we all work together, we may be able to break through. I'll need a few days to try and find a weak point."

"A few days?!" Phosphora exclaimed.

"It's the best we can do," said Rei. "And it's the only plan we have at the moment."

Phosphora sighed. "Fine. I'm going home."

As she turned to go, Venus made a move to go after her, but was stopped gently by Neptune.

"Let her go," she said. "She's worried for her friend, that's all."

"I know," said Venus as she watched the red haired senshi walk away. "But who's going to worry about her?"

-----------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, at the temple, Mamoru finished tucking Usagi into bed. He gave her a light kiss on the forehead and quietly left the room. Taiki and Yaten were guarding outside the temple, he and Seiya would protect the inside.

The other young man was sitting right outside the door, his knees drawn up to his chest. Mamoru sat down on the other side of the door.

"Is she asleep?" Seiya asked.

He nodded. "She'll be down for the night."

Seiya gave a slight smile. "Nothing wakes her up."

"That's for certain."

The two men cast glances at each other for a moment.

"You're a very fortunate man, Mamoru-san."

"I know."

"Good. Because if you didn't, I might have had to beat you up." Mamoru looked at Seiya, but the singer just shrugged. "Just kidding." He only sounded half-serious. "I have to admit something to you."

Mamoru waited. This didn't look easy for Seiya to say.

After a moment, he began again. "Ever since I was young, I grew up wanting to serve the princess of Kinmokusei, Princess Kakyuu. I thought no one could ever be as kind or as gracious or as benevolent as she. She was the perfect leader of our people. As I grew older, I thought I loved her. I knew nothing could come of it, but I was happy just serving her.

"Then, the worst happened, and our planet was attacked. Our princess was lost and most of our people died. I could only salvage Taiki and Yaten, and the three of us went in search of Kakyuu. Knowing she might look different and may not remember us, we disguised ourselves as men to attract women. We'd know our princess when we saw her. At least, that's what we thought.

"That's when I met Odango." He put his head down on his knees and sighed. "At first, I thought she was just a silly, clumsy little girl who ate too much."

Mamoru chuckled a little, remembering his first impression of Usako.

"But... after a while... I saw she was much more than that. I hadn't thought I could love anyone but Princess Kakyuu... But Odango shone just as brightly. She left her light inside of me and I couldn't forget her. I couldn't distrust her, as my friends told me to. They told me to keep my head on the mission. And after everyone's senshi secret was out, her own friends told her to stay away from us. From me." He lifted his head, a fierce light in his eyes. "But something in me cried out to protect her, as I'd only done for my princess before. Something made me return to her, again and again, even if I got hurt. As long as she was safe, then I was happy."

He turned to look at Mamoru. "I'm sorry, Mamoru-san. I fell in love with your girlfriend. And I tried to have her love me back." He shook his head. "It didn't work, though. She loves you more than life itself. And when I left the last time, all I could think was 'I hope he deserves her.' This time... All I want is to protect her. Will you allow me to give her my love in this fashion? I'll do it with or without your permission, but..." He gave him a half-smile. "I would rather have such a worthy opponent on my side."

Mamoru smiled slowly. "How could I say no? All of Usako's friends protect her because they love her. I understand how you feel. When Usako decides to care for someone, she gives each of them something special. Because of her, I'm no longer alone. None of us are."

Seiya nodded. "I carry her light inside me, too." He held out a hand to Mamoru. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said, taking the proffered hand. "Although, I feel like I have a lot to live up to, now."

He grinned. "You'd better. If you hurt her, I'll have to hunt you down."

Mamoru returned the grin. "You'd have to stand in line."

Yaten came walking through the hall then. "Hey, the others are returning. Taiki and I can watch over Usagi-san, you two can go find out what happened."

The two men nodded and stood up. Mamoru clapped Seiya on the shoulder and gave him a smile. Yaten furrowed his brow at this and gave his fellow singer a questioning look. Seiya just smiled.

"Thanks, Yat-chan."

In return, he gave Seiya a look that said he'd get a sound kick in the backside later.

To be continued...


	13. Bad Guy Back Story

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Thirteen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Angel sat on the ground while Yuki knelt behind her and tried to heal her broken wing. Her brow was furrowed in thought and she frowned as she tried to come up with a means of escape.

"There's got to be a way out of here," she said as Yuki's warm power washed over her back. "First, I've got to find where he put the Star Wand. He wouldn't have destroyed it, it has too much power."

"It would probably be in the throne room," said Yuki.

She groaned. "And that's probably heavily guarded."

"Maybe not. After all, it's not as though he thinks either one of us can get out of here, and it's pretty much impossible to enter this dimension without utilizing dark power, so he wouldn't be expecting any ambushes. I should know, the Mercaian army tried several times to break in here undetected. However, even if it's not guarded, he might know about it if we got out. He's got this ability to sense living things. He probably knows where everyone in this dimension is all the time."

Her head drooped. "Well, there goes any hope of escape. I guess we'll have to wait to be rescued."

"Head up, please."

She did as he requested.

"But how will the senshi get here? Like I said—"

Angel smiled. "If I know Zara, she won't rest until she's exhausted every effort."

"Alright. Well, rather than talk about escape, how about you tell me about Catastrophe?"

She sighed at his gentle probing. She'd resisted talking about the man who had been her love, but she supposed Yuki deserved an explanation. All of the senshi did, even if they didn't know it yet. "He didn't used to be called that. In fact, Catastrophe was a separate, bodiless entity. Just as dangerous, in fact, more so, because any attack you threw at it would be absorbed, but it couldn't get around very well without a host... I'm getting ahead of myself..."

"Start at the beginning."

"His name was Taka. He was the Knight of Saturn before the current one. My duty as Messenger took me many places, Saturn being one of them. It was there that I met him, that tall warrior with dark hair and eyes the color of a stormy sky. He impressed me with his valor and even more with his kindness. I found myself searching for excuses to visit Saturn more often, just so I could see him. I'd thought he hadn't even noticed me, but he cornered me in a night-blooming garden one night before I was leaving." Angel blushed. "He gave me my first kiss. I realized I was in love. And what a terrible thing that was. The Messenger of Danger is not allowed to love."

"Why?" Yuki interrupted.

"Because they live forever. Well, as long as they are not fatally wounded. Whoever they loved would grow older and die, and they would have to live on. This is done for the Messenger's protection. A senshi with a wounded heart cannot fully do her duty."

"But aren't senshi and knights reborn?"

"Only if they have royal blood, and not all senshi or knights do. Like me, I may rule over the sky, but I have no lineage. Messengers are born of light and energy. Taka was the knight of Saturn, but he was no relation to the royal family. So if we had been able to love each other, eventually, he would die and I would be alone. That's why the Messenger cannot love."

"It sounds like a very lonely existence."

"It was, for a while. But then, you get used to it. After all, you travel all the time, you see many places and meet lots of people, so you're not totally alone. Not like the Guardian of the Time Gate, who is solitary all her life." She sighed. "It wasn't until my heart gave itself away that I realized how very lonely I was."

Yuki finished his work and came to sit down beside Angel. She flexed her wings and found them completely healed.

"So, then what happened?" he asked.

"Before Chaos possessed Sailor Galaxia, his father, Catastrophe, came to threaten the Galaxy Cauldron. The other senshi had been killed. Only myself, Sailor Galaxia, Sailor Phosphora, and Taka remained. We had all been hit hard, and Catastrophe seemed no weaker. As a last resort, Taka came up with the same plan Galaxia would eventually use on Chaos. He said he would allow Catastrophe to possess him and for a moment, he would be defenseless. We were then to use our strongest attacks and kill him. It was the ultimate sacrifice."

"Why didn't it work?"

Angel covered her face with her hands. "I allowed my heart to get in the way. After Taka had been possessed, I struck first, but I aimed my attack low, hitting the rocks beneath his feet. The following up-shower of rock took the brunt of the other attacks and buried him in a crater fifty feet wide. The others thought he was dead..."

"But he wasn't."

She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her legs, drawing them up to her chest. "No. I knew it, too. I could feel it. But I left him there. Sleeping, perhaps half-dead, comatose... Who knows what jolted him awake, or when he left to hide in some far-off corner of the galaxy to gain in strength and wait for his chance to seize power again."

"Why didn't you remember him until he made you?"

"When I returned from the battle, I used the Holy Crystal to alter my memories so I could function. I remembered fighting Catastrophe, but not Taka. Everything about him was gone from my mind. It wasn't until we started fighting Catastrophe again that I started to remember bits and pieces."

There was a pause. "Wow," Yuki said finally.

"Yeah. So now, the entire universe has me to thank for their lives being threatened," she said, miserably.

Yuki wrapped an arm around her, a bit awkwardly because of her wings. "It's going to be okay."

"God, I hope so." She tilted her head to look at him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"I promise, we will get out of here."

For the third time, Catastrophe's silk voice cut through. "Now, now," he said in a deceptively gentle, chiding voice. "You know you shouldn't make promises you can't keep, little Angel."

She stiffened and Yuki let his arm drop as the demon stepped out of the shadows. Neither one really cared how long he'd been standing there. It's not as if they'd been talking about things he didn't already know.

"What do you want?" Angel asked him in a low voice, not bothering to look at him.

"Just to talk," he said, but she'd be damned if she believed that. "But I think this time I require a _private_ conversation."

As the door opened for him, Angel and Yuki quickly got up from the floor. Yuki backed up against the far wall and Angel stood before him, arms out, shielding him. She didn't want Yuki to be the subject of the demon's 'play' again.

"Leave him alone!"

"I intend to." A flick of his fingers and Angel was motionless. "The one I want is you, Angel."

Under his control, Angel walked stiffly out of the cell. Catastrophe wrapped one wing of his cloak around her shoulder and sent a smirk back to Yuki as the door closed once again.

When they were out of sight, Yuki knelt on the floor and sighed. Something white on the ground caught his eye, and he reached out to pick up one of Angel's feathers. It glowed softly in his hand. He tucked it safely inside his shirt and leaned back against the wall to wait. He hoped she would come back safe from whatever game that monster intended to play.

To be continued...


	14. Another Truce

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Fourteen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

"Alright, everyone," Artemis was saying to the senshi who had gathered in the main courtyard of Rei's temple. "We'll meet here tomorrow. Luna, Mamoru, and obviously Rei, will stay here with Usagi. Rei, call Usagi's mother in the morning and tell her Usagi got sick, but she's welcome to stay at the temple until she can come home. You can make up the illness, but 'too much studying' never raises any eyebrows. The rest of you, get some sleep, and be on your guard. I'll maintain the search for a weakness in that rift from Central Control."

As everyone said their goodnights, Minako sidled up to Seiya. "Goodnight, Seiya-san," she said with a smile.

"Goodnight, Minako-san."

"Say, Seiya... I think you ought to walk Zara home," she indicated the other girl, who at the moment was saying goodnight to Rei.

"What? Why?"

"She's VERY upset because her friend was kidnapped. I don't think she's totally on her guard and it would be just AWFUL if something happened to her because of it, don't you agree?"

Seiya looked over at Zara, his look softening slightly. "Yeah... Well, I guess I could."

"Great!" she bubbled and gave him a shove in the right direction. "You're a gentleman and a schooner!"

"That's 'scholar,' Minako," said Artemis as he trotted up beside her. "What are you up to?"

"Artemis, I'm surprised at you!" exclaimed Minako, pretending offence. "You always think I'm up to something!"

"Because you usually are."

"I won't discuss this. We're going home." She scooped him up and with his head on her shoulder, he couldn't see the mischievous smile that lit her face.

Seiya walked over to Zara. "Well, let's go."

She raised an eyebrow. "Go where?"

"I'm walking you home."

"Why?"

He looked over to Minako for help, but she'd already left. "Something might happen to you," he said, lamely.

She tossed her hair. "I can take care of myself, thank you." With that, she headed off down the temple steps.

With a sigh, Seiya shoved his hands in his pockets and walked after her.

-----------------------------------------

Ten minutes later...

"Quit following me!" Zara yelled for the third time.

Seiya, from ten paces behind her, called back, "I'm walking you home, whether you like it or not, you stubborn girl!"

She growled in frustration, her hands clenched at her sides as she continued walking. "This could not possibly get any worse..."

At that moment, the clouds opened and it began to rain.

"AUGH!" she screamed at the sky. "This has absolutely been the worst day of my life!! I hate this baddie, I hate this planet, I hate this! I hate it! I... hate it..." Kneeling in a puddle, she balled her fists at her eyes to try and keep the tears from falling. "No! I will not cry. Not after all this..."

She became aware of the fact that Seiya had caught up to her and was now kneeling in front of her. His hands came up to rest on her shoulders.

"Hey," he said, softly. "It's going to be okay."

"It's not okay," she said. "Why does it have to be this way? Why are there always bad people in the world? Can't they just... stop? I'm tired of bad guys just waltzing into our lives and trying to mess them up. I'm tired of the people I love getting hurt."

"This is the way it is, though," he said, daring to wrap his arms around her in what he hoped was a comforting manner. "Hate always poisons people's hearts. And that's why the universe needs senshi like you and me to protect them. I understand that you're tired of it; we all are, I think. But don't hate it. Hate is what makes people bad in the first place. We have to carry on. Everyone is counting on us."

"It's easy when you have all the answers, isn't it?" she asked, a little bitterly.

"No. It's easy to know the answers, but not so easy to believe them when you're far away from home and hope is rapidly slipping through your fingers." He tilted her face up with two fingers so she would look at him. "I've been where you are now, Zara. And the only thing to do is believe in those around you and keep going until you can't go anymore. You can do it, too. You're strong. I see it in you."

"You do?"

"Of course." He smiled. "You meet my temper head-on, don't you? You're quite the opponent."

She managed to smile back at him. "Thanks."

He helped her to stand up. "Well, now that we're completely soaked, will you let me walk you home?"

"Okay. I'll even lend you a towel. I'm nice like that."

He laughed softly as they began walking again. "I hesitate to suggest it, but do you think we could call a truce?"

"What makes you hesitate?"

"Well, don't you find our sparring matches kind of... fun?"

Suddenly, Zara was pulled back into her earlier conversation with Minako. _Had _she gotten Seiya's attention in _that_ way? "I... I don't know..." was all she could say to that. She wasn't sure if she liked the possibility or not.

"Do you think it's possible to be friends and still pick on each other once in a while?"

The word 'friends' calmed her down. "Yeah, I pick on Celeste all the time!" The mention of Celeste sobered her somewhat. "Are you saying you want to be friends?"

"I think I'm saying we could give it a try."

"Well..." She considered it. Seiya _was _being rather considerate to her. And it was nice to know that someone else understood her feelings in this situation. Minako's voice niggled at the back of her head and for a moment, she hesitated, but then shrugged it off. Minako hadn't made a successful match since Usagi and Mamoru. The chance she was right in this situation was like, a million to one. "Okay, why not?"

He gave her a half-grin. "Glad I was able to _convince_ you. Took you long enough to think about it."

She returned it. "Hey, I'm getting to short end of the deal, here."

"Excuse me? Have you forgotten what a fabulous famous singer I am?"

"I'm a fabulous famous singer AND princess of my own galaxy!"

"Well, tons of other girls want to be friends with me. I guess you're just special. All the special schools are after you." He snickered.

"You would know. You dropped out of three and had to take the short bus to school, didn't you?"

"That's an Earth thing."

"Damn! Well, it was _still_ a good burn!"

They laughed together. Zara thought that perhaps being friends with Seiya wouldn't be so bad. Maybe kind of fun. Minako was absolutely wrong. Of course she was.

To be continued...


	15. Angel's Last Resort

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Fifteen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Catastrophe led his victim through the halls of his dimension, a wicked smile playing on his lips. He looked down at her, stiffly walking beneath his arm, her chin at a rebellious angle, her angry eyes forward and refusing to look at him. Not for long. Soon, her eyes would only be for him.

"So quiet," he said, conversationally. "Will you say nothing to me? I did, after all, come all the way down to the dungeon to speak with you."

"Then, speak."

"You would talk to an old friend as you would a dog? How rude."

"I speak to people as I feel they deserve to be spoken to."

"Very well, if you insist on behaving like a three year old, I will treat you like one and take you over my knee." He inclined his head and breathed in her scent at the side of her neck. In her present condition, she couldn't move away, but she shivered at the rush of cold air. "We never did get that far in our relationship, did we?"

She took a sharp intake of breath. "Stop it, Taka..."

Instantly, his hand closed like a vice around the back of her neck and she felt that tightly coiled power that could easily be used to snap her spine. "I'll thank you not to use that name to refer to me _ever_ again." His tight voice was deadly serious.

She took a chance. "It is who you are to me."

His fingertips dug slightly into her skin. "That weak vessel no longer exists. Use it again and I will not hesitate to kill you."

"If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it by now."

"Then I'll have to think of a more _interesting _punishment."

She took the hint and fell silent. His hand fell away from her neck and came to rest at the small of her back.

"Now, then," he said, resuming his more conversational tone, as if he hadn't just threatened her, "there's something I want to show you." They stopped outside of a large double door and it opened for them. The interior was dark.

"It's not like I have a choice."

"No," he agreed, and walked her inside. The door closed solidly behind them. Once inside, he released her from his power. "I've sealed the door, so don't try to escape, but I thought this would be more amusing if you weren't standing like a statue."

"What would be more amusing?"

He snapped his fingers and candles lit, illuminating the room they were in. Light revealed a large, opulent bedroom with a canopied, four-poster bed at the center. Everything was in red and black and lit by tall black candles in brass holders. He was resting lazily against one of the bed's posts, a knowing half-smile on his face. She paled and backed away from him, but when she hit the door behind her, a sizzling backlash sent her staggering a few steps forward. He hadn't been bluffing when he said the door was sealed.

"You dirty girl," he said with a chuckle. Apparently, he'd gotten his amusement. "Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Why else would you take me here?"

He pushed away from the post and came closer. "To make you uncomfortable, of course." He circled her and she froze as he lifted her hair away from the back of her neck and ran his tongue along her nape. "Don't worry, Angel," he said in that silky tone, "when I take your body, it will be with your full co-operation."

"What!" She tried to pull away from him, but he had her hair fisted in one hand.

"That's the other reason I brought you here." He waved his free hand and more candles illuminated another section of the room. At the far end of the bedroom was an elevated platform, long enough to lie on. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pinning her arms, and he pulled her close. His large frame nearly engulfed her smaller one. Whispering in her ear, he said, "That is where I am going to infuse you with my dark power, my little Angel. That's where you will become my willing slave."

Held captive in his embrace, Angel let the tears fall. Now she knew why he had kept her alive. He wasn't simply going to hold her as a hostage against the other senshi, he was going to use her as a _weapon_ against them. Her heart felt as though it were breaking. If she harmed one of her friends in the battle that was surely coming, she'd never forgive herself.

Suddenly, her heart pounded in her chest. The Star Wand was somewhere in this room. While Catastrophe was otherwise occupied with her neck, she moved only her eyes and looked about. The pull seemed to be coming from an ebony cabinet on the opposite side of the room. Slowly, she gathered her power within her. He would know the instant she let the spell go off, but hopefully she could catch him enough off-guard that he wouldn't have enough time to counter.

His sharp teeth nipped at one sensitive earlobe. "What's going on inside that pretty head of yours?" he murmured. "Aren't you going to beg me not to do it? Don't disappoint me now. I had hoped for something other than those lovely tears."

"You're horrible," she said, not wanting to arouse suspicion by being too quiet.

"And you hate me?" Her statement seemed to have made him delighted.

"No."

"No?" He lifted his head slightly to look at her.

"I feel sorry for you." With that, she released the spell and the cabinet shattered.

Catastrophe flung around and watched, stunned, as the Star Wand let out a great flash of blinding light, then dimmed and lay there as useless as a toy. He turned and grabbed her by the throat, using his other hand to twist her arm behind her back.

"What did you just do?" he growled, furious.

She coughed, but managed to answer him in a strained whisper. "You should have known I wouldn't go down without a fight." She cast a glance to the now dark Star Wand. "You might as well throw that away. I just expended all its power." As she spoke the words, her fuku disappeared, leaving her in her costume from the concert, which also faded and melted from her body. She was unable to cover her naked form at the moment, however.

He tightened his grip. "To do what?" When she just smiled at him, he shook her roughly. "TO DO WHAT!" She passed out from his tight grip around her throat and with a scream of outrage, he tossed her onto the platform like a rag doll.

For a moment, he fumed with anger. But slowly, a chuckle worked its way up from him, until it was a full-bodied sinister laugh. "Very good, my once-love," he said, approaching the unconscious form on the platform, her long golden hair offering her scant cover under his gaze. "It appears that I underestimated you." He leaned closer to her and stroked the side of her face, his claws lightly skimming her cheek, then running down her arm and across her hip. "But that is the last trick you will ever play on me," he whispered. "When the sun rises on Earth tomorrow, you will be all mine."

Another laugh bubbled up as he used his power to turn on the apparatus. At once, Angel was bathed in a dark purple light and even as she slept, Catastrophe's power began to fill her veins, erasing all thoughts of her friends, of Yuki, of anything... but serving her new master.

Far across the stars, beyond the Galaxy Cauldron, there was the realm of the Sky Castle, the place where all Messengers of Danger were born. And within the Hall of Souls, surrounded by ivory statues of each Messenger that has come before, lay the Holy Crystal.

All was quiet until Angel released her final spell from the Star Wand. Then, the Holy Crystal began to glow with an intense light. A voice rose up from the midst of the Crystal, and it echoed throughout the castle, "Rise up, thou who have served and passed. The time has come, and ye are needed once more."

At these words, each statue began to glow with the same light and a ghostly apparition of each girl stepped down from their pedestals. They might have had different hair styles, were of different heights, and different body types, but each possessed a set of wings and a sailor fuku which marked their rank as Messengers.

This was the power of a Messenger of Danger, when she has reached her last resort. She could choose to give up her power and send an emergency warning to the Holy Crystal that would then raise the spirits of the past Messengers. They would go to each planet and sound the alarm, raising each available warrior to the cause. Soon, Catastrophe would have his hands full of powerful senshi to deal with. As Angel had said, she would not go down without a fight. With the last of her power, she would send a message to the senshi on Earth and prepare them.

And then... a new Messenger would be born. As Angel's consciousness slipped away, she hoped her successor would not be as foolish as she had been. And that she could convince her friends to kill her when they needed to.

To be continued...


	16. A Reintroduction and Reinforcements

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Sixteen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Two days, and the plan was ready. Artemis discovered that the protection spell on the rift was weakest at midnight, right as it renewed itself for the coming day. The plan was to have everyone, except for Usagi and a small group to protect her, gather around the rift and combine powers in order to get through it in one piece. Setsuna would use her considerable powers over time space to keep the rift open as long as she could.

It was the afternoon of the evening this was to take place when the senshi received their strange message.

Everyone was doing whatever they each did to prepare... Whether that was sparring, meditating, praying, sleeping, eating; or, in Minako's case, trying to wrest a good-bye kiss from Yaten. Thus far, according to the magnitude of her pouting face, her endeavors had been unsuccessful. Rei was at the fire, trying to predict the outcome of the night's venture, when her sudden scream of fright brought everyone running to the fire room.

A ghostly apparition hovered directly over the fire.

"Rei, what's going on?" asked Ami.

"Yeah, I thought the temple was warded against ghosts!" said Minako, clearly frightened, but with enough sense to take advantage of the situation and snuggle against Yaten.

Rei herself was shaken. "I... I don't know what it is..." She pulled out a ward and chanted. "Evil spirit, begone!"

The spell had no effect. The blurry figure began to come into better focus.

"Rei, it's getting stronger!" said Makoto.

"Wait a minute!" said Zara. "Are those... wings?"

"An angel?"

"Not just any angel! That's our Angel!" Zara sobered considerably. "Celeste... You're dead?"

The figure had come into complete focus at that moment and everyone could clearly see that it was indeed, Celeste.

"No," she said, her voice echoing. Now that she was fully with them, it appeared she could speak. "I am not dead. I am not even really Celeste. I am merely the visual manifestation of the last of her powers."

"What do you mean?" asked Rei.

"Celeste used the last of her power to alert you in this fashion. She had the Holy Crystal call all of the Warriors in this galaxy to your aid. They will be arriving shortly. But she could only do this by giving up all of her power."

"You mean, she isn't a senshi anymore?" Zara said, shocked.

She nodded. "That is correct. Before my time is up, I must tell you... Celeste's wish is that you destroy all the evil you will face. It may be difficult, but you must do it."

Zara's brow furrowed slightly. "Why would Celeste ask us to do something so obvious?"

But the spirit's time with them had been expended. With a bright flash of light, the body dispersed and floated down around them like twinkling stars.

Zara's shoulders slumped. She couldn't really believe it. Her best friend was no longer a senshi. As long as they'd known each other, they'd been fighting at each other's side. Celeste's duty was what first brought them together. And now...

An explosion from outside drew everyone's attention then.

"What now?" demanded Haruka.

"You guys," said Michiru, pointing to the men in the room, "stay here and protect Usagi. We'll go see what's happening."

Many transformations later, the senshi ran out into the temple courtyard. Standing atop one of the sakura trees, everyone could see a figure silhouetted by the moon. The high pitched laughter told them the person was female and the fact that she was throwing balls of dark energy at the temple pointed to 'bad guy.'

"Why is it that all female villains have annoying high pitched laughter?" asked Venus.

"I wouldn't be talking if I were you!" said the girl, in a strangely familiar voice.

"Hey!" said Venus, indignantly. "Who do you think you are?"

The girl jumped, no, _flew_ down from the tree on wings with feathers of pure black. Her clothing was little more than a black leather bikini with gloves and boots, but it was her face that shocked them. The golden brown hair and the blue-green eyes were Celeste's, but the wicked grin across her lips was completely out of place.

"I am Dark Angel," she said. "And I am going to kill you now." She flung a large blast of dark energy at the senshi.

Stunned, the senshi were barely able to block, but Saturn was on her guard enough to hurriedly put up a Silence Wall.

"Angel!" cried Phosphora. "This isn't you! What has that monster done to you?"

The look on her face turned uncharacteristically sensual. "Plenty. All night long."

Phosphora gasped. Mars glanced at Phosphora, then indicated Dark Angel. "He's brainwashed her. We went through this before with Mamoru."

"No, this is different," said Mercury, who was typing on her computer, studying Angel as she tossed a few more energy blasts at the Outer Senshi. "Celeste was no longer a senshi when this transformation took place. Rather than suppressing her senshi nature, Catastrophe has _replaced _it. It's a much stronger type of brainwashing. I'm... not certain it's reversible." Mercury gave Phosphora a sympathetic look. "I think this may be what Celeste meant when she said we must destroy all evil in our path."

"I won't kill my friend!" said Phosphora, vehemently. "There's got to be another way!"

Saturn blocked another attack, but it appeared as though Angel was only playing with them at the moment. She wasn't even trying to kill them yet.

"We may not have a choice!"

Angel yawned. "I'm getting bored. I really thought you senshi would be a challenge."

"Boy, that gets more ominous every time I hear it," muttered Jupiter, sarcastically.

Angel ignored that. "Guess it's time to get serious." She prepared an enormous ball of energy. "Hand over the princess, or die."

Everyone looked at the amount of energy that was suspended and knew that, from the strength of her previous attacks, they might very well die; or at least be nearly incapacitated. But no one was willing to step aside.

She shrugged. "Whatever." She threw the energy toward the senshi in the courtyard...

"Galaxy Strike Rebirth!" a new voice cried out. A blast of grey and silver energy engulfed the dark energy and caused it to implode on itself.

The senshi looked to the source of this new attack and saw a tiny girl in a black and grey fuku with silver hair, hazel eyes, and a serious expression. She was holding a long silver staff, which apparently was the talisman of the attack.

"Care to take us all on, baddie?" asked someone else.

Everyone looked to the roof above the little girl and saw a long line of other girls in various sailor fukus. The senshi realized that this must be the reinforcements – the Warrior Senshi.

Now, vastly outnumbered, Dark Angel scowled and cursed. Glaring at the Inner and Outer senshi, as though they had known about these new senshi all along, she pointed at them and promised, "This isn't over!"

With that parting shot, Angel disappeared into another rift.

A senshi in a magenta and white fuku with iridescent butterfly wings, a long pink ponytail, and purple eyes pouted and put her hands on her hips. "Oh, darn! We missed the fun part!"

Phosphora scowled at her. "What are _you _doing here?"

She was apparently only addressing the pink ponytailed one. The Inner and Outer senshi just stared.

The sailor grinned. "I'm a Warrior now!"

"Oh, God..."

Venus elbowed her. "You know that one?"

"She's my cousin."

Another senshi wearing completely white, but with short hair as black as a raven's wing stepped forward. "We're the Warrior Senshi. We were emergency summoned, but the spirit-things were kind of sketchy. Details?"

Mars sighed. She supposed there would be more guests at the Hino Temple tonight. "Come on in," she said. "You can introduce yourselves and we'll tell you about the pending end of the world."

"I'll make the tea!" said Venus with a smile, always glad to meet new people.

"Really," Saturn asked Neptune in an undertone, "how many of us _are_ there??"

To be continued...


	17. More Introductions

Author's Note: Yes, I DID steal a little bit from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this chapter... Don't sue me! Ten points to anyone who spots the bit that I took!

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Seventeen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Dark Angel sat, comfortably, in Catastrophe's lap and played with the ends of his long dark hair as they reclined in the throne room together.

"Forgive me, master," she said. "All of a sudden there were twice as many. And I had no weakness data on the new ones."

"You played the correct maneuver, lovely one," he said, running his fingers through the silky strands of her golden brown locks. "We'll send down another expendable demon and gather more information soon."

She smiled. "You're not mad at me?"

He trailed one fingertip down one of her arms. "Not unless you want me to be." His sinister look was calculatingly sexy and she giggled.

"So, then... Can I play with the puppy?"

He sighed. "I suppose. Give him some good exercise."

She gave him a lingering kiss and he smacked her on the rear as she climbed down from the throne. As soon as she had disappeared into a rift, Catastrophe called for his head minion.

"Xerkxak!"

The henchman appeared through a similar rift and bowed before his master.

"Ready another demon and be prepared for reconnaissance. I want as much information on these new sailor senshi as soon as possible."

"Yes, master."

-------------------------------------------

Angel reappeared in the dungeon. She smiled down at Yuki, who was shackled to the floor. He was shirtless and his chest bore a few scars he had not yet managed enough strength to heal.

"Hello, puppy."

Yuki did not respond, but he squeezed his eyes shut in pain. He'd tried to talk some sense into her before, but she clearly didn't remember him and saw him only as a prisoner to 'play' with. He hated that Catastrophe had changed her into this sad shadow of her former self. When he remembered the friend he'd had so briefly, it made the pain she inflicted now even worse.

"Time to play." The door opened for her. "I hope you won't disappoint me this time. Try not to pass out so quickly." She walked over slowly and straddled him, crossing her arms over his chest, and leaning her chin on her hands. She looked at him with a smile, seemingly thoughtful, taking delight in the discomfort she was causing him. "What shall we do today?"

In her hand, she created a tiny burst of energy, about the size of a match's light, and tossed it onto his bare chest. He sucked in a quick breath. The little energy blasts only hurt a little at first, but after a while, they did damage and hurt quite a lot, as shown by the scars. It was torture to be slowly burned by the dark power.

She leaned forward and licked his ear, then whispered into it, "Shall I tell you what my master did to me last night?"

This was the part he hated the most; when she would take such pleasure in his pain of having to hear, in exquisite detail, everything that went on between Catastrophe and his eager slave. Then, near the end of the torture, she'd offer to let him out of the dungeon if he'd agree to the same transformation she underwent. She'd ask Catastrophe if he could be _her _slave and wouldn't that be fun? He spat in her offer each time, and each time, she'd render him unconscious, and then she'd forget about it for a while. But he figured she would only do that for so long. And he dreaded the day he might actually be forced to take the dark power. That would be the day his life would end.

'Please,' he prayed, silently. 'Someone come to her rescue soon!'

-----------------------------

The fire room at the temple was decidedly crowded. The Inners, Outers, Starlights, Zara, and Usagi and Mamoru all sat on one side of the room while the new senshi sat on the other.

Minako, with some helpful details from Ami, had just finished explaining about Catastrophe, Angel, and the plan about the rift.

"But that's probably going to have to be redone, since Angel's a bad guy now," she said, sadly. She looked at Artemis for confirmation.

"Unfortunately, that's right," he said with hesitation. "Until we find out whether or not it's reversible, there's no point in risking our lives to get through the rift and save her."

Zara slammed her fist on the floor.

"But," Artemis added hurriedly, "we ARE going to figure out a way. Ami collected an impressive amount of data tonight. I'll take it to Central Command and analyze it. I'll try and figure out how soon a rescue will be possible. At the moment, protecting Usagi is the primary concern."

"That was the mistake in the first place!" said Zara, angrily.

Everyone looked at her in shock. "What do you mean?" asked Luna. "It's quite clear that Catastrophe IS after Usagi."

"But you're assuming he ONLY wants Usagi, and that's what got Celeste kidnapped. Didn't Usagi tell us that Catastrophe said he wanted to draw out BOTH Sailor Moon AND Sailor Angel that last time?"

No one had considered that. They had just assumed, since all of the villains had been after Usagi in the past.

"I propose," Zara continued, "that we all work together with a different strategy. There's no telling what he'll do. He may be trying to separate us one at a time, and then we'd be weak, since we all work best when working as a team, right? No more of this splitting up. Rather than banding together to protect one... we need to start protecting each other."

"But a senshi's duty is to protect the princess," began Luna.

"Zara has a point, Luna," said Rei.

"Concentrating on Usagi may very well be the thing that gets her killed in the end, if we're split up," added Seiya.

Zara smiled at her two supporters. "And I never said we should stop protecting Usagi, just think about the big picture. We all ought to pair up. Safety in numbers. That way, we'll never be caught alone. No one goes anywhere by themselves."

The rest of the senshi began nodding, conceding Zara's point.

"But I think we should have you introduce yourselves before we start thinking about that," said Artemis, speaking to the Warriors. "Then we can better determine who should pair up with whom."

One by one, the Warriors began to stand up and present themselves.

Wind went first. "Most of you know me already, but for the sake of the new arrivals... I am Warrior Sailor Wind." She held up a wand with a long golden ribbon attached, like a gymnastics tool. "I use the Wind Ribbon to tie up, confuse, and shock my enemies. My home planet is Uranus." She touched the heart that secured the bow on her chest and detransformed. "My name is Pandora. Since I was manufactured, rather than born, my creators thought it appropriate." She sat back down.

The girl who had spoken to Zara earlier went next. She stood up with a bright smile and flipped her long pink ponytail over her shoulder. "I am Sailor Nebula."

"Wait," said Minako. "Why is it that you're just _sailor_ and Pandora is _warrior sailor_?"

Pandora shrugged. "Some planets prefer the older title, even though our duty is a bit different from yours."

"Anyway," said Nebula. "Sailor Phosphora, well, Zarie, is my cousin..."

"And if any of you call me Zarie, I will have to kill you," added Zara.

"...and so is Cousin Kakyuu," continued Nebula, who was beginning to look a bit annoyed at being interrupted so many times. "By fluttering my wings, I create Rainbow Waves, which can knock a bad guy back while at the same time knocking in some damage. Cool, huh?" She crossed her arms over her chest, closed her purple eyes, and detransformed. Her outfit was decorated with lots of ribbon and frills, almost ostentatiously so. "I'm Twila. My home planet is Kinmokusei. And it's really nice to meet all of you!"

As she sat down, a little girl stood up, but not the same one who had helped defeat Dark Angel. This girl's waist-length hair was pure white and her eyes were red-violet. She wore a stylized sailor fuku in light blue and black and carried a tall, white staff with a star at the top. "I am Warrior Sailor Ice. And I am three hundred and seventy-four years old."

Everyone blinked in disbelief. This little girl couldn't possibly be older than eight!

She sighed. "It's true. My home planet is Mercury, and the ice running through my veins effectively froze my aging process when I was a mere child. It can be an advantage, as enemies tend to underestimate me." She indicated the staff. "I use the Ice Staff as my weapon, but I also use it to heal. I was working as the healer of the planet, since the previous healer was taken by Catastrophe."

"Killed?" asked Ami.

"We don't know. Most likely." She touched the heart at her bow and detransformed. Her clothing was semi-gothic in black, white, and leather. "My name is Ayesha. It means 'small one.'" She cast a glance at Pandora and rolled her eyes. "Ha, ha, ha..."

Next, the other little girl stood up, but she looked older than she had before. Earlier, she had appeared as old as Warrior Ice, but now she looked closer to the age of twelve. "I am Sailor Omega. My home planet is Saturn, and I, too, hold power over death, using the Alpha Rod." She held up the Rod in the air and detransformed. "My name is Maria, but you can call me Marie. I'm so named because it means 'rebellious.' As you may have noticed..." Here, she rapidly shot up in height and suddenly, she looked sixteen. "My body tends to rebel against my age. All of my clothing is made of special fiber that 'grows' and 'shrinks' with me and thank goodness for that..." As she sat back down, she shrank back down to age eight.

Next, a tall woman with blazing short red hair and icy pale eyes stood up. Her stylized fuku was in black and red and she carried a short, slim stick that didn't appear to do anything. "I am Warrior Sailor Fire, and I come from Mars. I use the Fire Stick to blow fire at my enemies."

"You mean that thing?" asked Makoto, pointing to the stick in her hand.

Warrior Fire smiled. "It's more threatening than it looks, which can be an advantage." She touched the heart on her chest and detransformed. Her dress was red, sexy, and augmented with a leather jacket. "My name is Jolie. No special story... Except perhaps that I appear to be the only one of us who is married." She blushed slightly. "But that's a tale for another time."

A graceful woman stood up as Jolie took her seat. She had wavy shoulder-length violet hair and warm brown eyes. Her fuku was in violet and black with a star pendant. She also carried a staff. "I am Sailor Noctra. My home planet is Neptune and I hold power over the night. I can use my powers anytime, but naturally, they are stronger during the evening." She touched the star pendant and detransformed. She wore a comfortable-looking top and skirt in soft colors. "My name is Noel."

Next, another tall woman stood up, the one with the short black hair and the completely white fuku. "I'm Sailor Sol; Jupiter; power over day; stronger during day." She waved one arm across her body and detransformed. She wore a charcoal-colored suit with tasteful white pinstripes. "Name's Alie. You can tell, I don't like to waste words. So don't make me repeat myself, 'kay?"

A sailor in black and yellow stood next. She had electric blue hair that curled into a perfect bob at the ends and bright chartreuse eyes. "I'm Sailor Aurora. My planet's Venus. I can do anything with light. I can bend it and shape it however I want. I tend to use lightning as my weapon of choice." She brought one fist to her chest and detransformed into sensible clothes. "My name is Dawn. Yes, yet another 'meaningful' name."

"Also," said Alie, since the introductions were then over. "In light of your previous conversation about a senshi's first duty is to protect the princess, I should point out that all of you," she indicated the Inner and Outer senshi, "are the princesses of our respective planets, which means we are bound to protect you. So, I think I speak for all of us Warriors when I say we agree with you, Zara."

Ami furrowed her brow. "Wait... Why isn't Pluto represented?"

Jolie, blushing again, answered her. "She's in training. Unfortunately, she's a bit too young to join us right now. She's... um... my daughter."

"How can she be the Warrior of Pluto, if you're the Warrior of Mars?"

"Her father, my husband, is from Pluto." She appeared to be getting more and more embarrassed. Apparently, her private life wasn't something she normally discussed.

"I see."

"Any other questions?"

Usagi raised her hand. "What were your names again?"

Some groans were raised. It looked like they were going to be there a while.

To be continued...


	18. A New Plan

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Eighteen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

As best they could, all twenty-four people and cats (Hotaru had counted) crowded into Central Control beneath the Crown Center. Artemis had been working day and night (to avoid Zara's wrath) with Ami's findings of both Dark Angel and the rifts. Now that there was a rift in Rei's courtyard, they had even more data to run.

It seemed that since the realm of time space they were dealing with was so unusual, and therefore not very compatible with the other surrounding realms of time space, every time a new rift was made in this dimension, the guarding spell weakened. Either that, or Angel wasn't too adept yet at wielding the dark power, and couldn't seal up her rifts completely. Either way, they had managed to gather a tiny bit of data on Catastrophe's realm without actually entering it yet.

Artemis brought up a 3-D representation of the dimension on the computer and projected it so everyone could see. "This is a rough adaptation, but it's pretty accurate from what we've gathered. It seems as though he's shaped the realm into a kind of moving fortress. And when I align the computer to the rift's signal..." He punched a few buttons and little red dots appeared inside the fortress. "This is a live feed, basically. It shows where everyone in the fortress is at the moment." He pointed at two stationary red figures in an upper part of the fortress. "I'm guessing that these two are Catastrophe and Angel, and that all the moving ones are minions."

"There's a ton of them!" said Minako. "How will we get by without being caught?"

"I've been working on new transformation devices with Artemis," said Ami. "They're going to have this same function to display Catastrophe's realm. We'll know where everyone is at all times, including ourselves, in case we get separated. All that's left to do is infuse them with our powers."

"And," added Artemis with a proud feline smile, "I've been working on a new power-up for all of you!"

Rei glanced around at everyone and raised an eyebrow. "You'd think with twenty-one senshi and Mamoru-san, we'd already be able to take a bad guy down."

"We've already seen a little of what his power can do," said Luna. "We can't be too prepared."

"Hey," said Zara, who was still looking at the projected realm. "What is this little white dot?" She pointed at a solitary dot near the very bottom of the dimension that wasn't moving. "Why isn't it red?"

Artemis examined it and frowned. "I don't know. I programmed the computer to display everything with dark power as red. Whatever that is, it must not be evil."

"A prisoner," deduced Makoto. "So we've got someone else to rescue, too."

"Then we _are_ going to rescue Celeste?" asked Zara.

The white cat turned back to the computer and brought up another projection of data. This one was of Celeste, or rather, Dark Angel. He made the projection transparent and everyone could see a dark entity pulsing inside.

"This is the representation of Catastrophe's dark power. We've discovered that, even though Celeste is no longer a senshi, she's not inherently evil..."

"Of course she isn't!" Zara said, getting angry.

"I-I know that!" Artemis said hurriedly. Zara was scary when she wanted to be. "It means that she can be changed... But only if she _wants _to change. The good inside her has to overcome the bad. It's not easy, but it CAN be done."

"That's true," said Usagi. "It happened for the Dark Moon family and for Allen and Ann."

"And for me," added Mamoru. "All of it occurred due to the power of love. It seems to be the only emotion strong enough to overcome evil."

"There's plenty that Celeste loves," Zara said with great certainty. "If anyone can overcome it, she can."

"Well, what we're really going to do is get in there and re-kidnap her. Then we can try and change her back," finished Luna. "And we need to do it soon, because Catastrophe seems to be gaining in strength with every passing day."

"What should we do until we're good to go?" asked Ami.

Luna and Artemis exchanged looks, then turned back to the senshi, seriously. "Training."

------------------------------------------

They actually didn't have much time to train, but everyone was paired off and spent as much time as possible learning to fight to compliment their partner's powers. Artemis and Luna tried to pair up senshi whose powers were opposites, like fire and ice, so that they covered a broader spectrum and hopefully did more damage to whatever or whomever they were fighting.

Somehow, Seiya and Zara were paired up together. It may have been due to the death glare Minako sent Artemis as everyone was matched. That same glare was used to pair herself up with Yaten. But at any rate, Zara spent much of the next two days with Seiya.

"It's not that I'm trying to always be conceited," Seiya was saying one day as they were sitting down, taking a training break in one of the rooms at the temple. "I've just found that when you pretend to be confident all the time, people tend to listen to you more. I guess I've gotten so used to it, I come off as an arrogant jerk." He took a water bottle from Zara and took a sip.

"Yes, you do," she said. "But I guess I can understand. Celeste was always saying that I act conceited when I'm really not. I thought it was fun to act confident when I really have no idea what I'm doing."

He grinned and handed the bottle back to her. "So you admit it. The thing for me is, I kind of stopped caring whether or not people are offended. As long as what I wanted was never obscured by it, I just went ahead."

"You know, Seiya, you're actually a pretty nice guy... Have you ever tried just being yourself?" She took a sip of water.

He thought about it for a moment as he blotted his brow with a towel. "I can't remember. I've been this way for too long, I think."

"You're being yourself with me, aren't you? I mean, right now, you're not being a jerk."

He laughed. "Well, there's nothing I want from you at the moment."

"I'd be _less_ inclined to give you anything if you were being a jerk."

"But see, if I were being a jerk, I wouldn't wait for you to give it to me; I'd just take it from you."

"You'd have to fight me for it." She was smiling. These verbal sparring matches _were_ really fun.

"I'd win."

"Okay, _now _you're being a jerk."

He laughed again, then held out a hand to help her to her feet. "Come on, enough of this debate. Let's get back to work. We can decide later how much of a jerk I am."

"Oh, I've already decided that."

As they laughed together, neither noticed Minako peeking her head into the room and grinning like a fool. She skipped off to find Yaten. If Seiya could be melted by Z, then Yaten could not hold out much longer from Minako's considerable charms; she was sure of it.

To be continued...


	19. The Rescuers: WAY Down Under

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Nineteen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Mamoru, the Outer Senshi, and half of the Warriors were staying with Usagi at the temple as the Inners, the remaining Warriors, Pandora, Alie, Jolie, Marie; the Starlights, and Zara made their way to Tokyo Tower at midnight the next night. Since this was where the first rift had been made, it had deteriorated the most and was at its weakest.

They were going to get in and rescue Celeste and the other prisoner tonight. Earlier that day, another demon had arrived and though it had been fairly easy to dispatch, it was enough of a warning that they shouldn't wait any longer. Catastrophe was getting stronger.

Every senshi went over the plan silently in his or her head. Using the new transformation devices, they would track each other's movements at all times. They'd get in as quickly as possible, landing in the dungeon as it seemed to be the only place where the minions didn't regularly go.

It seemed strange to them, but then, it was probably just another display of Catastrophe's arrogance that he felt no one could escape or enter his domain.

They'd rescue the prisoner down there first and a pair of senshi would immediately leave the dimension with him or her. From there, the senshi would fan out and create distractions by fighting the minions they came across while a small group of other senshi would go after Dark Angel. Zara was purposely not in this group, the others thought she was too closely connected to Celeste and that it might effect her judgment. Once they found Angel, they'd use their new attacks in careful concert to knock her unconscious. Then, using the built-in communication device in the transformation bracelet, they would signal the others to retreat and hurry back to the rift, where they would all, hopefully, return to their own world. Lastly, Sailor Omega would use her powers over death to close the rift permanently.

The plan was complex in its simplicity, but if everything ran like clockwork, they should all get out of there in one piece. Whether or not Catastrophe would follow them out through a new rift was something they didn't know, but they were prepared to fight if it came to that.

Ami's computer beeped. "This is it," she announced. Everyone gathered into a circle at the location she indicated.

"Right," said Minako. "Let's do it!"

Using the new bracelets, the Inners, Starlights, and Zara transformed. The Warriors used their own talismans to transform, as they had politely turned down the offer of a power-up, saying they had already been trained to their full potential. Artemis had said it made sense, seeing as they weren't trying to recover their powers from a former life, as the senshi were. So, the Inner senshi now transformed to their Eternal form, like Usagi did, while Zara and the Starlights transformed to their Super forms.

Super Sailor Phosphora looked at the dual golden swords that replaced her Heart Rod, the new fuku with black and gold armor accents, her new retractable wings, and grinned. She liked this new power-up.

Everyone joined hands. Next to Phosphora, Fighter squeezed her hand once, but when she looked at her, Fighter's eyes were staring straight ahead.

Closing their eyes, every senshi concentrated. A soft white glow began to surround them and then grow in intensity. The twelve of them slowly lifted off the ground and floated there as the light engulfed their figures. Suddenly, they were all sucked into the center of the circle and disappeared through the rift.

When they opened their eyes, they were in a dark, stone walled room, lined with barred cells. In one they saw a non-moving figure. They had arrived.

The Warriors and Starlights moved the either side of the long hallway to sound the alert, should anyone appear to be coming. The Inners and Phosphora went to the cell door where Mars went to use her powers to melt the lock. But there was some kind of spell on the door, it was designed to open by magic. Immediately, Mercury set to work using her computer to override the spell.

Inside the cell, the young man chained to the floor dazedly turned his head to look at who was outside the door. He shook his head slightly as if to clear it when he saw the senshi. His gaze focused on Mercury and his eyes widened.

"Oh, my God," he whispered.

"Don't worry," said Phosphora. "We're going to get you out of here."

"I knew her friends would come sometime," he said, still casting frequent glances at Mercury.

The computer beeped. "System override complete," she said.

Mars turned her fire on the door and this time it opened. She and Mercury entered the cell and used the same double team to free the man from his shackles. Once he was free, however, he sat up and embraced Mercury. She blinked in confusion.

"Um... You're welcome?" she said.

"I'm sorry," he said, ducking his head slightly to hide what were apparently tears in his eyes. "I'll explain later. I'm just... so happy to see you, finally."

"Okay," said Venus. "Sailor Sol and Eternal Sailor Jupiter are going to take you out of here and down to Earth now, so..."

"No!" he said, adamantly. "I can help you..."

"You can barely stand!" said Jupiter, who was at the moment shouldering the young man.

"I know this place better than you," he insisted as Sol helped him into his shirt. "I haven't always been kept down here. And Catastrophe has something of mine. I have to go with you."

Venus and Mars exchanged looks. This wasn't in the plan... But if what he said was true, they could be out of there that much quicker. It was a gamble they'd have to take.

"Alright," said Mars. "Lead the way..." She trailed off, prompting him for his name.

"Yuki," he said, gritting his teeth as he struggled to walk. "Just Yuki for now."

After activating the built-in tracker, everyone fanned out as planned. Jupiter and Sol helped Yuki to walk while Mercury and Mars took up the front and back of their party respectively. The four followed Yuki's directions to the throne room, occasionally blasting minions.

"She's usually in there with him," he said as they made their way through the halls. "That's what she tells me, anyway. But he would be out directing his henchmen in a crisis like this, so there's a good chance she's in there alone. Unless she's helping him..."

"No, we'd have gotten a communication from one of the others, if they had seen her," said Mercury. She was studiously watching her computer and communicator for any signs of coming trouble.

"This is it," he said, pointing at a huge set of double doors.

Mercury tapped on her computer. "I'm getting a reading... It's Dark Angel's. She's in there."

Sol and Jupiter set Yuki on the floor against the wall and took up positions on either side of Mars and Mercury. They prepared to fire their attacks as planned, so that Angel wouldn't have a chance to retaliate or dodge. As one, they kicked the doors open.

Angel whirled around. "Wha--"That was as far as she got.

The four attacks hit her, one after another, and she fell to the floor. Feebly, she tried to get back up, but passed out before she could even make an attempt at an attack.

Mercury scanned Angel for her vital signs. "She's alive," she said. "But we have to get her out of here, fast."

Sol hefted Angel onto one shoulder. "That's the plan. Signal the others."

"Wait," said Yuki, struggling into the room on his own. Jupiter shouldered him again. He pointed to an iron cage near the throne that seemed to be emitting a soft blue glow. "There's a bracelet in there that belongs to me."

Jupiter aimed a well-placed thunderbolt at the cage and Mercury retrieved the wide silver bracelet. Yuki secured the item on his wrist and what looked like a large blue sapphire on it glowed brightly for a moment. "Okay, let's go."

On their way back to the dungeon, Mars punched a button on her bracelet and spoke into it. "Retreat! Pull back! Retreat!" These were, of course, the code words for 'Mission accomplished, back to Earth.'

The other senshi filtered into the group from various hallways as they half-ran back to the dungeon. Hauling two bodies with them slowed the process somewhat. As Fighter and Phosphora, the final two, rounded a corner to join them, the others knew something was wrong.

"We've got company!" yelled Phosphora.

Apparently, some of the minions had figured out what was really going on and had followed them. Not only that, but Catastrophe was hot on their tails. Yuki glanced over his shoulder at him. The usually cool demon was, for the first time, boiling with visible anger. His battle aura was a flaming purple and his face was thunderous. He was so furious he wasn't throwing his attacks very accurately, and that was the only reason why none of the senshi had gotten hit yet.

When they reached the dungeon, the wide girth of the minions only allowed for them to follow the senshi two at a time, which slowed them down considerably. A few of them got stuck. Catastrophe just seemed to be getting more and more angry, stuck behind his own minions, he tried throwing dark energy over their heads, but ended up hitting the henchmen.

At the rift, Phosphora turned and looked back at the demon. She gave him the finger just before disappearing through the rift.

His roar of anger was the last thing she heard.

To be continued...


	20. Siblings and Secrets

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twenty

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Zara leaned against the wall of the room they'd placed Angel in, arms crossed, frowning. A nearly transparent silver dome circled the bed on which Angel was laying, protection courtesy of Sailor Omega. It allowed Warrior Ice, also in the room, to use her Ice Staff to heal her, yet cause the dark powers to 'die' while within the walls of the barrier. Her former friend was motionless... for now.

Seiya sidled in and stood against the wall next to her. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"About what?"

"How I can get Celeste to wake up inside of all that evil."

"Well, Celeste loves you. Power of love and all that stuff."

"Yeah... But will it be enough?"

Seiya didn't have an answer for that. He reached down and took her hand in his, squeezing it briefly. "It'll be okay."

"You shouldn't make promises you don't know if you can keep."

"That wasn't a promise. It's a hope. Still got that, right?"

Zara gave him a half-smile and squeezed his hand back.

Warrior Ice stopped her ministrations and detransformed. "She is healed. At least, in body."

"Thanks," said Zara.

"Let's go see what everyone else is doing," said Seiya. "I have a feeling she's not going to be very happy when she comes to."

----------------------------------------

In one of the larger rooms, Rei was handing Yuki a cup of tea. His hands were shaking slightly and he apologized for it. "I can't yet summon enough strength to heal my most recent wounds," he said.

"No problem," said Minako with a smile. "We can ask Ayesha to help. Oh, here she is..."

When Yuki turned to greet Zara, Seiya, and Ayesha, Ayesha gasped as she laid eyes on him. Instantly, she fell to one knee. He grimaced slightly.

"Greetings, your highness," she said in a highly respectful tone.

"Your highness?!" echoed everyone else.

"Yes," said Yuki, somewhat reluctantly. "I'm actually... Prince Yuki. Please just call me Yuki. It's not how I would have preferred to introduce myself, but..." He glanced at Ami. "I suppose this makes it as good a time as any for the explanation I promised." He sighed, trying to decide the most tactful way to bring it up. "I am the Prince of Mercury, so incidentally... I am your older brother, Ami-san." At her shocked expression, he continued quickly. "I didn't want to tell you until you remembered on your own, so I apologize... If you doubt it, then..."

With a bit of an effort, he stood up and rotated the jewel on his bracelet. Instantly, his body was enveloped in an icy mist and when it cleared, Yuki was wearing full body silver armor with blue jewels. "I am Mercury Knight, healer and guardian of the planet." He indicated Mamoru and Usagi. "Just as the Earth Prince guards the Golden Crystal and the Moon Princess keeps the Silver Crystal, so do I protect the Aqua Crystal." He held up the bracelet to show them the jewel. He rotated it the other way and detransformed. "This is why I was so glad to see you. You had been on Earth for so long, and your memories were gone, so I didn't want to visit you..." His voice caught slightly. "I just... missed my sister."

"This is getting more confusing by the day," said Minako in an undertone to Zara. "But it makes sense, I guess... Somehow..."

Ami was silent for a moment, trying to digest all the information. "I'm a little... overwhelmed..." she said, finally.

"I understand," he said, instantly. "Take whatever time you need." He smiled, a bit shyly. "Now that I'm here, we have all the time in the world."

"Not exactly," said Artemis, breaking into the family reunion. "Now that we've got Angel back, we've got to get her back on our side as soon as possible. I've been reevaluating the old data along with the new that Ami brought back from your trip through the rift. Catastrophe is actually a lot stronger than we originally thought."

"Geez, Artemis," said Minako. "Don't you ever have any good news?"

The white cat had the grace to look somewhat embarrassed. "I don't mean to be all doom and gloom..."

"It's okay, Artemis," said Rei. "We know you're just doing your job."

He sent a grateful look to the fire senshi. "Well, based on this new data, we're going to need every bit of help to defeat him. It turns out, he's been studying us. Ami found traces of each of our energies in the fortress. He's been looking for weaknesses. I'm guessing that the only reason he hasn't followed us out to Earth after we ambushed him is because of the new power-up you've just received. He has to start all over before he can attack."

"But he won't wait long," added Luna. "Which is the reason we don't have 'all the time in the world.'"

"Yeah, he was pretty mad," said Minako.

"That's an understatement," said Zara.

"We're going to need every bit of help we can get to defeat him. That's why we need to wake up Celeste-san's inner goodness," finished Artemis.

"Wait a minute," said Makoto. "I thought she wasn't a senshi anymore. Wouldn't she just be a regular person if we managed to wake her up?"

"Setsuna-san?" prompted Luna.

The time senshi stepped forward. "It is written that once a Messenger of Danger dies, a new one will be born instantly."

"But no one's shown up," protested Rei.

"Exactly. Celeste-san's powers must not be entirely dead, or someone would have arrived already. And it is up to us to revive her."

"I'll help," said Yuki. "Before that bastard turned her, we spent some time together, and I did some healing on her. I know her body's chemistry, I might be able to do something."

"And I'll help," said Zara. "I know Celeste the best."

"I'll help too," said Seiya, though he offered no explanation.

"So," said Artemis. "Before we go up against him, there's just one more thing to tell all of you." It didn't look easy for him to say. "Prepare for the worst."

All of the senshi exchanged looks, knowing what that could mean.

"Yuki-san," said Zara, suddenly. "You didn't happen to find out why Catastrophe wanted Celeste in the first place, did you? I mean, we figured he wanted to use her against us, but... I don't know, that reason alone just doesn't jibe with me, somehow."

He stared at her. "You mean you don't know?"

Everyone exchanged glances and shook their heads. Yuki released a breath and ran a hand through his dark blue hair as he shakily sat back down at the table.

"Warrior Ice," he said, addressing Ayesha by her title. "If you would do me a favor and heal me so that I can manage to stay awake, I'll tell you all a story of star-crossed love, loneliness, and a fatal mistake of the heart." He tossed his tea back in one gulp and prepared to bare Celeste's deepest secrets to her best friends.

To be continued...


	21. An Idiot's Guide to Jepordizing

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twenty-One

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Everyone sat back, stunned, at the end of Yuki's story. Most shocked of all, probably, was Zara. Her face had gone white as a sheet.

"I... I didn't know," she stammered. "I fought in that battle and I hadn't known. I was her best friend and I hadn't even known!" She fisted her hands in her hair. "How could I have been so stupid?"

"Hey," said Seiya, grabbing her hands and helping them to relax, "it's not your fault."

"Celeste blames herself for this entire situation," said Yuki. "When all she did was make one mistake."

"One _stupid_ mistake!" said Rei, angrily. "She's put the entire universe in danger!"

"Rei, how can you say that?" asked Usagi. "If it had been Mamo-chan in that situation, I know I would have done the same thing."

"If you'll remember, Usagi," Rei said, turning on her. "Your love for Mamoru-san already destroyed an entire kingdom. I suppose it was time for a new set of contenders to try and ruin _this_ century."

Usagi began to cry, so Mamoru, with a glare at Rei, took her out of the room. Minako thwacked Rei upside the head.

"That was mean, Rei!"

"It's not my fault that love makes you do stupid things!"

"Oh, _no_, you did NOT just diss my power as the senshi of love!"

The other senshi were beginning to have similar debates as Minako and Rei continued.

"I know _I_ wouldn't have compromised a battle," Haruka was saying on the other side of the room.

"Are you saying you'd kill me if you had to?" asked Michiru.

"Well..."

The field seemed pretty much divided evenly between thinking Celeste did what any person would have, and thinking that her mistake was the death warrant for the entire universe.

Zara glanced next to her at Seiya. "What do you think?"

He looked at her for a long moment. "I think love makes you do crazy things. You know I've been there." He smiled. "What about you?"

"She's my best friend. I'm allowed to think she's stupid while still supporting her." She glanced at the chaos around them. "I'm going to go home. I'm too tired to try and break up all these fights."

"I'll walk you."

No one noticed Seiya and Zara leave the room.

----------------------------------

Zara was trying to cook herself an egg in the microwave later that night when there was a knock at the door. Throwing the wasted egg effort in the garbage, she went to see who it was.

She opened the door to find Seiya standing there. He'd only left her about two hours ago, so in her surprise, she forgot to say hello.

"Hey," he said finally.

"Hey... Did you... forget something?" she asked, still somewhat confused by his appearance. "Is something the matter?"

"Yeah," he said, shifting his weight to the other foot. "Yaten is driving me up the wall and Taiki is no help. Can I hang out here for a while?"

She stepped back for him to enter. "Okay, I guess."

He made a slight face as he took off his shoes and placed them by the entryway. "What were you cooking in here?"

With a groan, she closed the door behind him. "I was trying to cook an egg. Celeste usually handled all the food, since cooking isn't exactly my strong point, and we ran out of cereal, but I thought I could handle a microwave..."

He laughed. "How about I cook you dinner, in exchange for the peace of mind you're granting me?"

"Great!" She flopped on the couch. "I never mind being waited on."

He made her a courtly bow and resisted the urge to snicker. "As you wish, princess."

As he went into the kitchen, she called after him. "Would you please not call me that?"

He continued to talk from the other room. "Why? Most girls think it's cute."

"I'm not most girls."

"Don't I know it."

"And it makes me think of home... I'd rather concentrate on worrying about one galaxy at a time."

There was a pause. "Zara..." Another pause, as he tested saying her name. "Do you know, we've actually met before?"

She blinked. "We have?"

"Uh-huh. At your cousin Kakyuu's coronation. I was really little at the time, but I could never forget... You must have been about three years old. All of the kids who had been brought to the event were being watched by some old nurse in a room that was well out of the way of the coronation. I was the only one who saw you sneak out of the room, so I followed you."

"No way! I don't even remember this!"

He came out into the living room then, holding a plate of scrambled eggs and cheese. "It's true. Your hair was so bright orange, it looked like your head was on fire." He sat down next to her and handed her the plate. "I caught up to you halfway down the hall and asked what you were doing. You said you were bored and insisted that you were going to see your cousin."

"Did we?" she asked between mouthfuls.

He nodded. "Yep. We stood in the back of the throne room and watched the whole ceremony. But you gave us away when she was crowned and you shouted 'yay!'" He laughed softly. "Someone came running up saying, 'Princess Zara! You shouldn't be out here!' They took you away and I was led back to the babysitter, but it had been fun... and it was a nice memory to think about when I wanted to smile."

"I wish I could remember it," she said, wistfully. She put the plate on the coffee table in front of the couch and turned, curling one leg beneath her, to give Seiya her full attention.

"Even if you can't, I think we're having some memorable times together now, aren't we?"

She sighed. "I'd rather they were happier..."

His look softened slightly. "We should make them happier."

"How?"

"Well... We'll wake up Celeste soon. With twenty-two senshi, Mamoru-san and Yuki-san, I don't really see how we could fail defeating Catastrophe. You've made a lot more friends, right? And..." He leaned forward and kissed her.

In shock, she reflexively pushed him away and backed against the arm of the couch. "What are you doing?!"

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I have a confession to make, Zara... I didn't just come here to get away from Yaten and Taiki." He looked her square in the eyes. "When Artemis told us to prepare for the worst, it really put it in perspective for me. Last time I prepared for the worst, I barely got to tell the woman I loved how I felt. And while, usually, I take forever to think about how I feel for someone, I'm not waiting this time. I like you. How much, I don't know yet, but I like you, Zara. And I wanted to show you before it was too late."

"So you just go and kiss me? You absolute jerk!" She could appreciate his reasoning, but the way he approached it hadn't been fair to her. "We're supposed to be friends!"

He shrugged, unrepentant. "Whatever. I wasn't going to risk death without getting a kiss from the girl I like."

"That's a pretty cheap way to snake a kiss!"

"Are you saying I had a chance of getting one if I had asked?"

She sputtered. "I-- Well-- You-- I hate you!"

"No, you don't."

"Oh, yes, I do!"

"Well, I like you."

"Fine! You like all you want! But I hate you!"

He just smiled at her. "You're beautiful when you're angry."

"Augh!"

He leaned forward again, and she squeezed her eyes shut, defensively putting her hands up. When he laughed softly and nothing happened, she squinted her eyes open. He wasn't doing anything, just leaning very close to her. So close, she could feel the heat from his body radiating onto hers.

"If we live through this battle, I want you to promise me you'll kiss me back."

"I'll kick your ass, is what I'll do."

He leaned closer, his lips were scant inches from hers now. "Promise me."

She resisted the urge to pull away, since she knew that was what he was trying to make her do. "Fine, I promise." Anything to make him get away from her.

He laughed again and for the first time, something caught her attention. Her eyes shot fully open.

"Have you been drinking?"

He quickly leaned back. "No."

It was her turn to lean forward and she sniffed the air around him. "Yes, you have!"

He gave her a grin, tracing a random pattern on the couch with one finger. "Just a little sake that Mamoru-san had... I probably would have chickened out if I hadn't drunk it."

"MAMORU-SAN knows you're here?!"

"Kind of."

"GET OUT!" she bellowed.

"I would, but..." He swayed slightly. "I don't think I can walk..."

She covered her face with her hands in exasperation. "I'd kill you, but it wouldn't be fair if you're already passed out." She left the room for a minute and came back with a pillow and a blanket which she threw at him. "You can sleep on the couch. Don't expect me to sympathize with your hangover tomorrow. And I'm locking my door, so don't even think about crawling into bed with me!"

He just smiled blearily at her as he emerged from under the blanket. "You're so nice. I knew there was a reason I liked you."

"SHUT UP!"

She stomped into her room and locked the door behind her. She stood listening for a minute, but didn't hear anything that sounded like Seiya getting up to go after her.

'Thank God...' she thought.

Sitting on her bed, she mulled things over, still stunned. Minako had been right. Granted, Seiya was drunk, but if anything, drunks usually get MORE truthful rather than less.

"Damn it!" she whispered so he wouldn't hear her.

She mostly was angry because, now that Seiya had told her this, she had to admit that she was at least attracted to him. And if she was attracted to him, she was only a few steps away from liking him, too. That was the bad part, because liking someone who was supposed to be your friend complicated things. Celeste's example had more than shown her that. And not only were they in the middle of a very dangerous situation, but they would also eventually have to part ways. No good could come of this, any way you looked at it.

She sighed in frustration. Suddenly, sleep seemed like a very good idea. This would all go away in the morning. When Seiya was sober, he'd take back what he said and everything would be normal again. At least, she hoped so. She dreaded having to give Minako the right to say 'I told you so.'

To be continued...


	22. Starlight Hair Care Tips

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twenty-Two

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

The next morning, Zara awoke to the sound of her alarm clock beeping. No, wait... She didn't have an alarm clock. Fuzzily, her brain identified the sound as her communicator which she had left on the nightstand. She squinted one eye open and saw the red light flashing on the face of the device.

She really didn't feel like moving to turn it off, she was all warm and snuggly in the bed and more sleep was such a good idea... But if she just let it keep beeping, she'd eventually wake up all the way. And if it was her communicator, that meant that the senshi needed her for something. It could be something important, but nothing could really be too important before noon, right?

In the end, duty won out, and with a groan, she reached over to turn the thing off. Except an arm that didn't belong to her reached over and turned it off before she could get to it.

She was awake then. Moving carefully, she rolled over...

And saw Seiya snuggling deeper into the covers. "It's too early..." he mumbled, clearly going back to sleep.

However, the outraged scream of his bedmate woke up right up.

"Augh!" he groaned, covering his ears. "Keep it down, my head hurts!"

"That's not the only thing that's going to be hurting in a minute!" yelled Zara. "Get out of my room!"

"Your room?" He looked at her, confused, and then glanced at his surroundings, which seemed to make him even more bewildered. "What am I doing in your room?"

His confusion only served to make her angrier. "That's what I'd like to know! And didn't I lock my door? How the heck did you get in here?" She looked over at her door to see that she didn't have one anymore. There was a gaping hole where it should have been, big enough for a person to walk through, almost as if someone had... "Seiya! Did you use Star Serious Laser to get in my room?!"

Seiya was pulling the blanket over his head. "Don't remember..."

One solid kick and he was on the floor with a thud, pulling the covers with him. "Wake up, you jerk! You don't deserve more sleep!"

He pulled the sheets off of his head and frowned at her. "That hurt."

"You should consider yourself lucky that was ALL you got! Now, pull your brain back into your head and tell me what you did last night!"

He grinned at her. "I like your pajamas."

The pillow hit him smack in the face. By the time he'd recovered, Zara had pulled a robe over her silky camisole and pants ensemble. She stood, facing him, hands on hips, and scowled. "You'd better focus, or so help me--"

"Okay, okay..." Seiya's eyes rolled to the ceiling as he tried to remember the events of last night. "I remember the couch being really lumpy... I was barely awake, so it made perfect sense to find a more comfortable place to sleep."

"You couldn't have gone in Celeste's room?"

"Your door was the first one I came to."

"So you BLAST it open?!"

"Like I said, it made perfect sense at the time... It would have taken too long to find another bedroom..."

"UGH! I hate you!"

She regretted the phrase instantly, because the words seemed to spark another remembrance in his mind.

"Oh, that's right," he said, real awareness dawning in his eyes now. "I remember why I came here last night..."

She turned away then and sat down at the dressing table, beginning to rapidly draw a brush through her sleep-tangled hair. "Yeah, yeah, whatever... You can take it back now, you drunken slob."

She jumped as his hands suddenly came to rest on her shoulders. He smiled as she met his eyes in the mirror.

"Why would I do that?" he asked.

Shrugging away his touch, she went back to brushing. "Maybe because you shouldn't do things like that when you're drunk."

"Does that mean you'll respond better if I'm sober? Because I'm sober now..."

"You get away from me!" She brandished the hairbrush threateningly. "Touch me like that again and you'll have to deal with the entire Veidan army!"

He seemed unphased by her threat. Instead, he plucked the brush from her hand. "Speaking of Veida... Don't you have someone do this for you there?"

"Well, I have to... As princess, my hair reaches the floor. It's really hard to brush hair that long by yourself. I have no idea how Usagi manages it..."

He picked up a handful of her hair with one hand and began to brush it. "Allow me, then."

She squirmed, trying to get out from under the brush, but he kept a hold on her hair. "Cut it out."

"Why? It's nice to have your hair brushed by someone else. Do you think us Starlights do our own hair? We have to help each other every morning just so the ponytails are right."

She couldn't help it... The visual of straight-laced Taiki brushing finicky Yaten's hair for him was too funny and she laughed.

He smiled again. "Are you still mad?"

"Oh, yes," she said. "Don't think you're off the hook just because you made me laugh. You owe me a new door."

"Can't you just conjure one?"

"That's not the point."

"Oh, I see... This is your ploy to get me to come over here again." He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Once you're done with my hair, remind me to smack you."

The communicator chose that moment to start beeping again, faster than before, meaning the call was urgent.

"That's right!" said Zara, getting up from the table and going to the nightstand. "I forgot they were calling me earlier!"

She pressed the talk button and Minako's face appeared on the tiny screen. "Z! Get down here, now! Your friend is running a duck!"

"That's 'amok,' Minako-chan," came Artemis's voice from somewhere off-screen.

"Whatever," she said. "Just get here soon!"

"No problem," said Zara. "Seiya and I will be there as soon as we can."

"Seiya?" Minako asked, her eyebrows sky high. "He's there? At ten in the morning?" She sounded very excited.

Zara winced at her mistake. "Bye, V."

"Wait--!"

She pressed the end button before Minako could make anymore comments. "Damn..." she muttered.

"What?" asked Seiya.

"I'm going to have to give Minako the right to say 'I told you so.'"

"Huh?"

"Nevermind." She set the communicator back on the table. "I'm going to take a quick shower, then we have to get to the temple ASAP. Why don't you go make breakfast to start making up for my broken door?"

"Unless you want me to join you..."

Another pillow hit him. "Get out of here, you pervert!"

He bowed, smirking. "Yes, ma'am."

He walked through the door-hole and in a moment, she heard the sounds of pots and pans clanking around. With a sigh, she went into her adjoining bathroom, but didn't bother to lock the door. As she'd learned, locks didn't necessarily keep Seiya out.

To be continued...


	23. JumpStarting a Memory

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twenty-Three

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

The temple was still standing when Seiya and Zara reached it, but the bright flashes of purple, blue, and silver light that were intermittently bursting out of it were an ominous sign.

As they grew closer, what had been incoherent shrieks were more discernable as words and phrases, mostly consisting of variations on "Let me out, you senshi slime!" and "You'll be sorry!"

Minako was waiting at the door of the temple. "So, Zara, did you--"

"Nothing happened, V."

She pouted, then turned her smile on Seiya. "Seiya, was it--"

"Shut UP, V!"

Seiya gave her a smile and a shrug. "Sorry, Minako-san. It'd be my head on a platter if I say anything."

"Well, a senshi can imagine, anyway!" said Minako. "And that's almost as good."

Almost everyone was standing outside of the room Dark Angel had been in the night before. Rei cast Zara a worried look.

"She's been screaming ever since she woke up this morning and trying to get out of the dome." She indicated that Zara should look into the room. Ice and Omega had their staffs crossed and their eyes shut in concentration as they stood at the foot of Angel's bed. Angel was hurling bolts of energy at her prison, but so far the combined efforts of both Warriors were keeping her at bay. "We don't know how much longer they can keep this up."

Yuki was sitting in the room by the door, his face ashen.

"What should I do?" Zara asked him.

"Talk to her," he said. "Try to break through."

Zara took a deep breath and approached the caged Angel.

"Celeste," she began, but was cut off as Angel shot a burst of energy straight at her. The dome stopped it, but it was still frightening to be that close to the dark power, and not transformed. "Celeste, listen to me," she tried again.

"That's not my name, so quit calling me that!" she yelled, accompanied by another power bolt.

"It _is _your name, it always has been. And you're my friend. Remember?"

"Ha!" Another bolt. "As if I'd be friends with senshi trash!"

"You not only _are _my friend, but you're a senshi yourself! Catastrophe changed you and took away your memories."

"That's the worst lie I've ever heard!"

"Yeah? How far back can you remember?"

"I..." Angel actually stopped. Her attacks paused as a confused expression flitted across her face. Then her eyes narrowed. "This is a trick. _You_ erased my memories!"

"No, we didn't, I promise," said Zara. "Did you ever think about the past _before _we brought you here?"

"Well, I..." She paused again. "That's not the point!"

"Yes, it is! What if you're wrong, and it really was Catastrophe who changed your memories? What if we're really your friends and you're trying to hurt the wrong people? I've got hundreds of memories of the two of us together; laughing, fighting, crying; and I know you've got the same ones buried in your head somewhere."

"Prove it."

It was Zara's turn to be confused. "Huh?"

"I said, prove it." Angel crossed her arms over her chest. "Show me these memories, then maybe I'll believe you."

"I can't--"

"So, you are lying!"

"No! That's not what I meant." Zara sighed. "I don't have the power to do that." She began to explain for everyone's benefit as well as Angel's. "Being the princess of Veida, I've been trained in many levels of power. Invading someone's mind is a high level power, because it's a sever breach of privacy when and if you use it. You can only gain it after many decades of study and with lots of discipline. They figure if you can work that long to gain one power, then you have the discernment not to use it on people that you shouldn't."

Yuki cleared his throat softly and everyone looked at him. "I can do it."

"But your highness," said Ice, who insisted on referring to Yuki by his title. "It's extremely dangerous. She could damage your mind permanently, if she has the expertise and the will."

"I know," said Yuki. "But if it's a possibility that this could turn her back..."

"That's right," said Angel with a smug smile. "Trust me and I'll trust you."

Everyone exchanged glances. It was a huge risk. Ami entered the room from the hallway and knelt next to Yuki's chair.

"Only do this if you're certain," she said and gave him a hesitant smile. "I don't want to find my brother only to lose him."

He returned her smile and gently touched the side of her face. "I'm sure."

Zara went to Yuki. "How will it work?"

"You'll join hands with me and I'll scan your body chemistry. Once I've aligned myself to it, I can take the thoughts you're projecting and send them to Angel. You're going to have to concentrate really hard, because if you try to send me too much at once, you could send me into overload. It will be strange at first. No one likes an invasion into their mind. But if you keep your mind open to me, things should go well." He glanced at Angel. "That goes for you, too."

"Oh, I'm willing, puppy," she said with a wink at him.

"Puppy?" asked Zara with a questioning look at Yuki.

He shook his head, not meeting her eyes. "Don't ask."

"Are you certain you're well enough for this, your highness?" asked Ice. "You've been up since dawn, trying to get through to her."

He nodded. "Yes, yes." He rose from the chair with a sigh and gestured to everyone in the hallway that they should leave. "The fewer distractions, the better. Zara, Ice, and Omega can stay."

Angel pouted at the two senshi who were keeping her contained. "You don't trust me? And after all we've been through."

"For good reason, Angel," said Yuki. "We're showing you a good deal of trust right now." Yuki placed Zara at the foot of Angel's bed and stood behind her, taking her hands in his. "Keep your eyes closed, it will help with your focus. Try to pick out the memories that are the most clear. And remember, keep your mind open."

"Right." She closed her eyes and waited.

Yuki's first touches into her mind were light, like the touch of a feather, but she was away of the intrusion. She forced herself to be accepting of them and after a moment, Yuki was completely aligned with her.

"Alright," he said, and somehow she knew that he was thinking these words directly into her mind. "Go ahead."

Carefully and deliberately, Zara concentrated on a memory of herself and Celeste when they were young, singing and dancing for Zara's parents. There was a heaviness on the receiving end, and Zara could feel it, even though it was filtered through Yuki. Apparently, it was difficult to align to a thought pattern so clouded with dark energy.

Hoping this wasn't causing Yuki too much pain, she tried another memory; they were slightly older this time and Celeste was telling Zara and Minako that it was a bad idea to smuggle Princess Serenity to Earth and that Minako wouldn't fool anyone with her Moon Princess disguise. There was a slight prickle this time, as if the dark energy was rebelling against the memory. Yuki's hands tightened on her own, but he whispered into her mind, "Keep going... She's loosening a little..."

Thinking this was the memory Angel couldn't run away from, Zara thought hard on the battle with Galaxia against Catastrophe the first time. In her mind's eye, she focused directly on the man she had barely known, Taka, as he told the other senshi his plan to take on Catastrophe. On Angel's end, there was a rush of lightness that broke through the heavy, prickly feeling. The dark energy fought back, but there was a flux now in the power.

In her mind, she concentrated on Angel's face as she threw her attack at Taka, now Catastrophe. She saw, for the first time since that battle, the look of pain on Angel's face, the tears she was concealing so carefully. And also for the first time, something broke through from Angel's side of the mind alignment in Celeste's voice...

"...My love..."

The dark energy rebelled fiercely then, and Zara was thrust violently out of Angel's mind. So violently, she fell to the floor, breaking her contact with Yuki.

She looked back at him, afraid. Yuki's eyes were squeezed shut and a painful groan wrested itself from him. With an effort, he thrust Angel out of his mind and she let loose a scream of frustration.

Yuki knelt on the floor next to Zara, breathing hard.

"What happened?" asked Zara.

"She almost had me," said Yuki. "If I was less skilled in mind melding, she might have taken over my mind. And then you all would have been in trouble. Luckily, I've been studying for a very long time and it'll take more than a little dark power to overthrow my mind." He smiled at her and helped her to her feet.

"What do we do now?" She looked at Angel who, since she couldn't get out of her prison, was currently glaring at them. "I don't think my memories worked."

"They almost did," said Yuki. "You heard what she said. She remembered what happened and who it was."

"Maybe," said Zara, doubtfully. "I thought it was Celeste's voice I heard, but... What if it was just Dark Angel referring to Catastrophe when she said it?"

"I can _hear_ you, you know!" said Angel.

Yuki looked at Angel for a long time, then back at Zara. "I think... you all should leave."

"What?" The three girls protested. "Why?"

"There is one memory that _I_ can try."

"You?"

He nodded, not looking at them. "But... I would prefer it if we were alone. Please... don't ask me to explain."

Zara glanced at the other girls. "Well... We'll be right outside the door. In case you need us."

He shook his head. "If this doesn't work, it would be too late. But thank you." As an afterthought, he removed his bracelet containing the Aqua Crystal and handed it to Warrior Ice. "Just in case of the worst... Give this to my sister."

She nodded, holding the precious heirloom to her chest.

Yuki ushered the senshi out of the room, giving Zara one last smile, meant to reassure before he closed the door behind them.

Ice sighed, looking at the Crystal in her hands. "Only the eldest heir may weald the Crystal... If he fails..."

"He won't," said Zara, fiercely. "He can't. We have to trust him. Though if I can't get all the way through to Celeste, I don't know what memory he could have that would spark her goodness..."

Omega's staff talisman flashed and the tiny girl gasped.

"What?"

Her large hazel eyes were alarmed. "He just entered the protection dome!"

To be continued...


	24. Only a Memory Away

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twenty Four

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

"What do you mean, he just entered the protection dome?!" exclaimed Zara, staring at Omega in disbelief.

"Just what I said!"

"She must have taken him over after all!" Zara tried to reopen the door, but it wouldn't budge. "We're locked out!"

"Let me try," said Omega, who sent a blast with her staff at the closed door. It remained intact. "We're _sealed_ out!"

"That means only someone inside can open the door," said Ice.

"Damn it!!" Zara used her talisman to transform. "We have to keep trying! Call the others!"

-------------------------------------

Dark Angel reclined on the bed, lazily, as Yuki entered the dome, only the slightest bit of surprise showed on her face.

"Couldn't resist me any longer, hmm?" she taunted him. "Aren't you afraid?"

"I'm used to you and your power by now," he said. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Ooh... What are you going to do, puppy?" she asked, sarcastically. "Show me a memory of Catastrophe's dungeon?"

"No," he said as he sat down on the bed next to her. "I'm going to show you a memory I don't think even the real Angel remembers."

Before she could figure out what that meant, Yuki lunged, wrapping both his arms around her and plunging them far into his memory. Suddenly, she was drowning in blackness... It hadn't been nearly this strong when Zara had projected through Yuki before...

And then, she was in a hallway. White columns and tiles of lapis were the main décor. There were some plants in sconces, but they were white and lacy-looking, like snowflakes. I had no idea where she was.

Seeing a person who looked like a servant approaching with a mountain of linens, she took an arrogant pose with her hands on her hips and asked in her most authoritative and intimidating tone, "What is this place?"

The person walked right past her. Annoyed, she called after her, "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

The girl stopped and turned around... but it was only to pick up one of the linens she had dropped. Angel made a move to grab the girl... and her hand went directly through her.

She gasped.

'You're not really there,' came Yuki's voice. She looked around for him, but was alone. 'This is my memory. You're only an observer.'

"You let me out of this memory right now!" she said, angrily.

"I'll let you out when I'm good and ready." His tone told her that he was having a little of his own back this way.

She glared into space, hoping he could somehow see her.

Another person came into the hallway then... Yuki! So he was finally joining her. She opened her mouth to tell him off... but stopped when she realized something was different. This wasn't the puppy she knew... he looked younger by quite a few years. He was wearing elegant fencing attire with a velvet cape thrown over his shoulders, fastened with a silver chain. A graceful sword clinked at his side. And he didn't seem to see her either, though he was walking directly toward her.

"Yuki!" came another voice, somewhat familiar.

The young Yuki looked behind him to see a small blue-haired girl running around the corner. Angel recognized a young Sailor Mercury.

"I said our lesson was over for today," said Yuki as he bent down to his sister's level.

"But I only cried a little," she said, her lower lip sticking out. "Can't we practice just a bit longer?"

He smiled and ruffled her hair. "You know I can't stand to see you cry. That's why the lesson is over if you shed a single tear."

"Then I'll learn not to cry!" she proclaimed.

Young Yuki chuckled as he straightened back up.

Angel sighed noisily. "And what, exactly, am I supposed to be seeing here?" she asked, pointedly. "If you're trying to give me cavities, it's working!"

'Be patient,' came older Yuki's voice from inside her head. 'This is the beginning of the memory. Be thankful I'm not making you relive a memory of watching paint dry.'

"You're going to be sorry!" she promised him.

A door at the other end of the hallway opened then. A winged girl in white emerged from the room along with a tall man wearing a mantle and a crown. She bowed low to him and turned to exit through an adjoining hallway. As she turned, Angel recognized herself!

"Who is that?" asked young Yuki. Dark Angel looked at him and saw he possessed the same stunned look that she at the moment was wearing.

Young Mercury answered him. "Oh, that's Princess Celeste. She's a senshi, like I'll be someday," she said proudly.

"She's beautiful," said Yuki, but he said it so softly; Angel doubted his sister had heard him. He bent down to the blue-haired girl again. "Go tell father you're improving in your fencing, then I'll come find you and we can go into afternoon lessons together."

"Okay!" Mercury ran off.

As though transfixed, young Yuki walked down the hall and turned in the direction that Princess Celeste had gone. Out of curiosity, she told herself, Dark Angel followed.

------------------------------------------

"Hit it again!"

Another joint attack hit the sealed door, to no avail.

"Again!"

"Phosphora, this is doing no good!" said Mars. "We're just wearing ourselves out!"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No..."

"Then keep going!"

The senshi continued trying different combinations of attacks to try and break the seal on the door. Not even Sailor Moon had been able to break the seal on it.

"What kind of barrier is this, anyway?" asked Venus.

Mercury was typing away at her computer, her VR visor flickering with information. "All of its energy is devoted to keeping people out. Since it's not expending any energy on offense maneuvers, its defense is that much stronger. And it's definitely Yuki's pattern signature."

"Well, it would be, if she was controlling him!"

"Yes, but..." Mercury frowned, typing faster. "If she was controlling him to set up the barrier, I should be able to tell."

"How?"

"Well... When you use someone else as a medium, the signature is sloppy. She wouldn't be that adept at faking Yuki's pattern. My conclusion is that Yuki did this of his own volition."

"But why would he do that?"

She deactivated her visor. "To keep us from interrupting. Like we're trying to do now."

The senshi stopped trying to break down the door and exchanged glances.

"I think," said Mercury, "that Yuki has a very good reason for wanting to keep us out when he did something this dangerous. And I expect he'll tell us once he reopens the door."

Phosphora sighed. "I suppose it's time to trust the Mercurian siblings. I just hope nothing bad happens."

To be continued...


	25. None of Us Can Choose Where We Will Love

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twenty-Five

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Inside Yuki's memory, Dark Angel followed Yuki's younger counterpart through what she'd guessed by then to be the Mercurian Kingdom's castle. She told herself it was because she was stuck in Yuki's head until he let her out and she had nothing better to do than witness this memory he wanted her to see... But if she was honest about it, she really was curious.

They left the main part of the palace and Angel found herself in a courtyard full of the white lacy plants. She supposed they were bred to grow in a cold environment. There was an icy fountain at the center and a stream that flowed from it divided the garden in half. A few bare trees stretched their branches to the sky, but the dusting of snow kept them from looking ugly. And despite the cold, there were a few birds twittering about. In fact, the twittering was mostly what she was hearing at the moment. It was starting to get annoying...

She looked at young Yuki, wondering where this memory was going, and he was staring at something near one of the trees. Following his gaze, she saw Princess Celeste kneeling by one of the trees. She had missed seeing her before because of all the white.

Yuki swallowed hard and hesitantly went closer. As Angel followed him, the sound of soft crying could be heard.

After another hesitation, Yuki knelt next to her. She started slightly and looked up at the intruder. On closer inspection, this girl definitely was Angel... She was a dead ringer. She didn't even look younger; she looked precisely as Dark Angel did. Except she had those weak tears in her eyes.

"What's the matter, princess?" asked Yuki.

Celeste extended her cupped hands to him to show she was holding a tiny bird. The small creature's wing was bent at an unnatural angle and it wasn't moving. So that's what all the chirping was about. Looking up at the tree, Angel could see supposedly the bird's mother, hopping around and shrieking as loudly as she could. The other birds didn't seem too happy either.

"I saw it fall," said Celeste. "It's so sad... To have its life cut short in an instant. And it's poor mother..."

"Oh, please," said Angel, though no one could hear her.

"Let me see," said Yuki. He placed one hand underneath hers and the other above the bird's body, creating a small space for the bird inside. His eyes closed and a soft blue glow emitted from their joined hands.

Celeste gasped, but didn't move. "So warm," was all she said.

"You sound surprised," he murmured, eyes still closed.

"Mercury is an ice planet."

"That doesn't mean its people are cold." His eyes opened and he smiled at her, telling her the truth with its warmth. "Far from it."

He lifted his hand from over the bird and the creature sat up, blinking its eyes. Celeste smiled, laughing with pleasure as it flew back up to its mother in the tree.

"Thank you!" she said. "Thank you." Impulsively, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

For a moment, Yuki was stunned, his eyes large. Then, without knowing why, he tightened his grip on her hand and pulled her forward slightly to give her a kiss on the lips. She gasped, but didn't pull away, so the kiss lingered for a moment longer than he had originally intended.

When he reluctantly pulled away, her eyes remained closed. His gaze narrowed to her lips which were slightly parted and darkened to a ripe peach color. The sudden urge to kiss her again was nearly overwhelming. Reaching up with his other hand, he lightly brushed away the tears from her cheek.

"You're right," she said then, very softly.

"What?" he asked.

Her eyes opened, staring into his. Her fingers came up to touch her lips, wonderingly. "You are warm."

Somehow, the spell that had fallen which had narrowed their world to just the two of them broke then, and Yuki was aware once again of where they were. Abruptly, he dropped her hand and stood.

"I'm sorry," he blurted, not looking at her.

"What?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Why?" Celeste looked confused as she stood up and moved closer to him.

He turned and ran back into the castle, leaving her in the courtyard. She stood there for a moment longer, extending a hand to his retreating form, but let it drop. From a window, Yuki could see her crestfallen look and he sighed as she took to the sky on her wings.

"Why?" he repeated her question to himself. He turned his back to the wall and slid down the floor, drawing his knees up. "Why?" he whispered. "Because I think I love you."

Angel wasn't sure when her eyes closed, but when she opened them again, Yuki was kissing her. No... She was kissing him.

They were kissing each other.

It was Yuki who pulled back at last. He stroked her cheek with the fingers of one hand. "Celeste?"

"Yes?"

"I love you. I don't know why. I have since the first moment I met you, at first sight, I just knew. I should have told you. But when you didn't remember me back in the dungeon that first day, I played along."

"Yuki..." She brought her hands up to his face. "You have all this power at your disposal and you never hurt me because you loved me this much... I don't deserve it. How did you do it? How could you let me hurt you like I did? How did you bear it?"

"None of us can choose where we will love. You know that better than most."

She nodded, then gasped, her eyes widening. "I remember!"

He laughed softly. "You just now realize that you're back to your normal self?"

"There were a few distractions." But she couldn't smile at her own joke. She fisted a hand at her chest. "My heart hurts."

"It's a normal reaction to forcing the darkness from your body."

"I don't think that's the only reason." She sat up from the bed and her black wings dripped from her body, feather by feather, and disappeared into the air. The tiara on her forehead which held a black stone vanished. Seeing where this was going, Yuki managed to grab the blanket from the bed and wrap it around her before the clothing she had been wearing disappeared as well.

She stared up at him. "I feel... empty."

Kneeling before her, he took her hands in his. "It's because there is a piece of you that's missing. You gave up your powers as a senshi and you no longer have the dark power that Catastrophe replaced it with. In a sense... you _are_ empty."

"So this is what it feels like to be a mere mortal." She sighed. "Take me to the others."

"Are you certain?"

She nodded. "There's something I have to do."

He helped her to rise and wrapped an arm around her as they went to the door. He opened it slowly and saw everyone waiting out in the hallway. Celeste squeezed his hand once, then walked out by herself. With the blanket wrapped tightly around her, Yuki thought she looked very small, and she probably wished she were invisible. He couldn't imagine what it must be like to have to face the friends you were bent on destroying only a few hours ago.

Celeste walked slowly through the line of senshi, her eyes on the floor. She didn't raise them until she came to Eternal Sailor Moon, who was, as always, standing under the protection of her prince. The two girls merely stared at each other for a moment before Celeste fell to her knees.

She rested her forehead on her hands, and her shoulders began to shake, though the blanket muffled her cries.

"Forgive me!" she sobbed. "Forgive me. _Please_, forgive me..."

To be continued...


	26. Forgiveness is the Mightiest Sword

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twenty-Six

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Eternal Sailor Moon gazed down at the supplicated former senshi before her, then at the friends around her, uncertain.

After a moment, Yuki stepped from the doorframe into the hallway and knelt to one knee before the princess.

"I have forgiven her," he said.

Taking a leaf from his book, Phosphora also knelt, laying her swords on the floor before her. "I forgive her."

After Phosphora, Fighter grabbed her compatriots and knelt as well. "We forgive her." She received sideways looks from Maker and Healer. No doubt they were getting a little tired of being spoken for, but they said nothing, so what Fighter had said in this instance must be true.

Nebula also knelt beside her cousin. "I don't really know you... But I forgive you!" she said with a smile.

The rest of the Warriors followed suit after Nebula, with Pandora taking the lead. Slowly, all of the senshi knelt before Eternal Sailor Moon and forgave Celeste. Moon glanced up at Tuxedo Mask, who nodded, before she bent down and helped Celeste back to her feet.

"Of course you're forgiven," she said, smiling gently. "You're our friend."

As Celeste embraced the moon princess, a tear slipped from Eternal Sailor Moon's eye. Suddenly, the crystal-like droplet began to shine with a bright white light. As it did so, answering silver light began to emanate from the Crystal in Moon's locket.

Tuxedo Mask placed one hand to his heart as a soft golden glow pulsed from within his chest. "The Golden Crystal," he whispered.

Yuki looked down at his wrist to see that the Aqua Crystal was pulsing with the same intense light as the other two. "What's happening?" he asked.

Before anyone could attempt to answer him, everyone in the hallway disappeared into thin air in a flash of blinding light.

-------------------------------------------

When everyone could see again, they were in an unfamiliar place. It seemed to be some kind of palace, reminiscent of the Moon Kingdom with it's abundance of white marble and towering pillars, but there were about a dozen statues surrounding the hall that were completely new to all of them.

Eternal Sailor Venus approached one of them and read from the silver plaque affixed to the pillar. "'Amara - Sailor Angel, 976 B.C.'" She looked at the statue of the young girl and noted the wings, fuku, and tiara. "There were senshi all the way back then? And I thought Celeste was Sailor Angel..."

Neptune read from another plaque on a statue of a different girl. "Here's another one. 'Claire - Sailor Angel, 11 A.D.'"

"I think all of these statues represent someone who was Sailor Angel at one point," said Mars. "'Mabel - Sailor Angel, 1098.'"

"There's just about a new one for every century," noted Uranus.

"Except for this one," said Jupiter.

"That's Celeste," said Phosphora.

"Why is it that a new Messenger of Danger is born when the old one dies, while we're reincarnated each time we die?" asked Healer.

"That's morbid!" exclaimed Mars.

"It's a valid question," said Pluto. "There are reasons for each time we've been reincarnated. And the reason why a new Messenger must be born is because they are created using the power of the Holy Crystal. In essence, they have no true soul, so they can't be reincarnated."

"No soul?" repeated Moon, her eyes large. "How sad!"

Warrior Wind sniffed, but said nothing. She could be rebuilt if something ever happened to her.

"This one looks like the one who came to Kinmokusei," said Nebula, pointing at the statue of Amara.

"Now that you mention it, this one looks like the spirit that came to Jupiter," said Sol, looking at the figure of Claire. One by one, the other Warriors mentioned similar sentiments about the other statues. "What's all this about? Where are we?"

Apparently, that was the magic question, because another bright light flashed at the center of the circular room. When it faded somewhat, everyone could see a large white crystal suspended above a tall dais. It spun slowly on its own, shining brighter than any star.

"Thou art within the Sky Castle," rumbled a majestic voice that seemed to come from inside the crystal.

Phosphora gasped. "I thought no one was allowed here but Celeste!" she said.

"Ye speak the truth," said the Crystal. "Yon Messenger has been forgiven, purged from the darkness by the ultimate power. Thy sacred items called to me from beyond."

"What'd it say?" whispered Venus to Mars.

"Celeste is on our side again and apparently, the Crystals' combined powers were what brought us here."

"Oh..."

"So, why _are_ we here?" asked Phosphora.

"To revive the Messenger."

"Revive her?" She looked back to see Celeste slumped on the ground, forgotten, unmoving. "Celeste!" She went to her friend and knelt beside her. She remained motionless, even when Phosphora shook her shoulder gently.

"A new Messenger should have been born after Celeste gave up her power," said Pluto.

"Ye speak the truth," the Crystal said again. "However, the Messenger possesses a gift the others didst not; God, in his mystery, hath blessed her with a true soul which granteth her the ability to love and to be reborn."

All eyes drifted to Celeste's prone form, the only Messenger in history with a soul.

"Ye must awaken within her a new power," continued the Crystal.

The Holy Crystal's light brightened again and centered this time on Celeste. Slowly, her body began to rise from the floor and into the air. Again, the three other Crystals began to pulse with the same intensity.

"Moon Crystal Power!" cried Eternal Sailor Moon, somehow knowing what to do.

"Earth Crystal Power!" said Tuxedo Mask, following her lead.

"Mercury Crystal Power!" said Yuki.

The light from the three Crystals combined with the white hot light of the Holy Crystal and blinded the senshi from seeing Celeste for a moment. When the light faded, the Holy Crystal had disappeared from the dais and in its place stood... Super Sailor Angel. Her silver and white fuku had small changes, much like those of the other senshi after their Super power-up, and her wings had gotten slightly larger. In her hand she carried a long staff topped by what looked like a smaller version of the Holy Crystal, with tiny wings spread out on either side. She smiled down at them.

"My friends," she said. "I'm back."

To be continued...


	27. A Kiss Under the Sakura

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora – The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Twenty Seven

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

From there, relations between the senshi were pretty much back to normal. Except that Celeste kept apologizing to everyone. Except that her and Yuki were all lovey-dovey towards each other. Except that Seiya kept smiling at Zara. Except that Zara kept whacking Seiya each time he did so. Except that Minako couldn't stop giggling as she watched them.

So, all in all... Things weren't completely back to normal... but they were close enough.

After teleporting back to Earth, the senshi gathered at the Temple to regroup. Both cats smiled at the reformed Celeste before getting down to business.

"Luna and I have been debating on the best course of action," said Artemis. "It seems stupid to wait for Catastrophe to come and attack us, letting him pick the time and place."

"But at the same time," continued Luna. "It makes no sense to stage an ambush in his dimension. We've already done it, so he might be expecting it, and therefore would have strengthened or sealed the rifts. Besides, trying to fight on his turf is suicide."

"But they've done it before," argued Artemis. "With Beryl, with the Doom Tree, with Galaxia... With pretty much every villain! And they've always come out on top."

"This villain is a lot stronger!" Luna countered. "And we know less about this dimension than any other."

The senshi sighed as the cats went on. Apparently, this had been going on for some time while they were gone. Everyone looked to Mamoru, who complied with a sharp whistle once again which stopped the bickering.

"May I suggest something?" asked Zara.

"By all means," said Artemis. "This is getting us no where."

"Why don't we challenge him on neutral territory?" she said. "Winner takes all. He wouldn't be able to resist that. Since neither of us would have a distinct advantage, it seems like the best course of action to me."

"There's still a good chance we'd lose," said Luna and the sentiment was echoed by a few other senshi.

"There's a good chance we'd lose if we fought it out here, too," said Zara. "And if we're somewhere else, we wouldn't have to worry about any stray Earth people getting hurt or in the way."

The two cats glanced at each other. "It does sound like the best choice," said Artemis. "But how will we issue the challenge?"

Yuki looked to Ami. "Working with what Artemis already developed and the data I know you collected on Celeste, could you find a way to get a message across?"

Ami did some mental calculations, then nodded. "I believe so."

"And where will we have this epic battle?" asked Luna.

"The Galaxy Cauldron," said Celeste, immediately. "It seems only fitting that this should end where it all began."

The cats nodded. "Tomorrow, then," said Artemis. "Ami and I will get the message across tonight."

The senshi looked at one another. Twenty-four hours to possible oblivion.

"Mamo-chan," whimpered Usagi, tugging at her boyfriend's sleeve.

"What is it, Usako?" he asked, leaning down.

"Please buy me an ice cream!"

He chuckled and wrapped an arm around his little bunny. They walked out into the cloudless night together as the others waved goodnight to them.

"It's so like Usagi-chan to ask for food at a time like this," said Rei.

"You mean, a last meal," said Haruka. "I think it's rather smart of her to ask for what brings her pleasure when it's possible that she won't be able to have it again."

"Speaking of pleasure," said Michiru, who now tugged at Haruka's sleeve. The racer flushed as the two of them waved goodbye to the others and departed in their car.

One by one and in small groups, the senshi dispersed. Celeste and Yuki walked off together, saying they wanted to make the most of the time they had together as too much had been wasted already; Makoto said she had a few phone calls to make to guys she'd been meaning to talk to; Setsuna and Hotaru left for the 30th century for a little while, since the people they wanted to see didn't exist yet; and the Warrior senshi all took off together to see a little of the planet they'd been on so briefly.

Taiki looked around. "Where are Yaten and Seiya?"

"Yaten and Minako are spying on Seiya and Zara," said Rei, who had watched the second two go outside just a few seconds prior.

Taiki sighed.

----------------------------------------------

"Why'd you bring me out here?" asked Seiya. Blossoms from the sakura trees nearby drifted lazily to the ground as the wind gently blew through the Temple's back courtyard.

Zara turned away from him and clasped her hands behind her back. The wind lightly tossed her hair as she looked up at the trees. "Do you know why sakura blossoms are pink?" she asked.

"That's what you brought me out here for?"

"Just tell me if you know, jerk."

He smiled. "No, I don't, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me."

"It's because of the blood of the people buried beneath them. They say in the afterlife, sakura trees bloom all year round."

"How do you know all that?"

"I read a lot of manga." She looked over her shoulder at him. "Come here." He walked toward her and she turned to him, putting her hands on her hips. "I've been thinking about what you said to me the other night. And I'd be lying to myself if I said I wasn't at least attracted to you. God knows why, since you're such a self-centered conceited jerk..."

"Please, the flattery will go to my head," he said, dryly.

She rolled her eyes. "The point is... I know you said you wanted a kiss if we survived all this... but I want to kiss you now."

He blinked. "Why the sudden decision? Not that I'm complaining."

She blushed lightly. "Because I don't want our first mutual kiss to be as one of us is dying."

"Sounds good to me."

"Then, kiss me."

He laughed softly, shaking his head as he gathered her in his arms. "Yes, ma'am."

As Seiya's head lowered to Zara's, Minako, watching from a window, glanced at the silver-haired young man next to her.

"She's right," she whispered.

"Huh?" Yaten whispered back.

She grabbed the Starlight by his shoulders and planted a big one right on his stunned lips.

Rei and Taiki, who had been watching them to make sure they didn't do anything stupid, then looked at each other... and sweatdropped.

_'I don't think so,'_ both thought as they glanced away.

To be continued...


	28. The Power of Karaoke

"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora – The Fight Against Catastrophe"

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The next morning, Yuki left Celeste sleeping in the room they had borrowed at the Temple and quietly walked to Rei's room where Ami had almost literally crashed the night before. It had taken longer than expected to break a message through to Catastrophe's realm the night before and she had been too tired to make the trip home.

Sliding the door soundlessly open a crack, Yuki peeked in. Predictably, Rei was already up and probably in the fire room, trying to look into the outcome of the evening's fight. A shock of blue hair was peeping out from underneath a blanket on a futon on the floor, though, so Yuki let himself in and slid the door back shut.

He sat cross-legged on the floor next to his sleeping sister and thought for a moment. If he opened his mind to her in this susceptible state and feed her a memory of their life before, she might remember the rest of her own volition as a result. The temptation was great. More than almost anything now, he wanted his sister back. But, as Zara had said, mind invasion is a high breach of privacy and he would never betray Ami's trust. He had waited this long, he could wait a little longer for her to remember on her own. He smiled, thinking of the day in the future when she could visit Mercury again.

Reaching out, he rubbed her back lightly, encouraging her toward consciousness. He felt a little badly about depriving her of sleep, but the minutes were ticking by and he wasn't about to give up the moments they had left.

She groaned softly and squinted her eyes open. "Yuki? What time is it?"

He glanced at the nearby clock on Rei's nightstand. "Almost ten."

"Ten!" she exclaimed. "I never sleep this late." She got up immediately and pulled Rei's robe over her borrowed pajamas.

"Well, at least now I don't feel so bad about waking you up."

She smiled. "Was there something you wanted?"

"I was wondering if we could spend a little time together today. I mean, considering what may happen..."

"Of course," she said instantly.

"I felt a little guilty about leaving with Celeste last night when I could have been helping you," he said. "But I've had even less time with her... It seems rather unfair that just as I find what I'm looking for, there's a possible threat of it being taken away."

"Don't think about it," said Ami, seriously. "You can't allow doubt to enter your mind in a battle like this. In any battle, as a matter of fact."

"You're right."

"Of course I am." She grinned. "What did you want to do today?"

"Anything. I'll take what I can get in whatever time we have."

She reached out and took his hand in hers. "Sounds wonderful."

* * *

Celeste was deep in dreamless slumber when Zara burst into the room.

"Cel-chan! Wakey-wakey!" she said, unusually awake and chipper for ten in the morning.

Celeste groaned and opened one eye. "Why are you awake at this ungodly hour? Actually, a better question would be, why are you waking _me_ up?"

Zara rolled her eyes"Oh, hush. If you can be _that_ articulate, you're not that tired. Come on, get up. There's something we have to do today, and you know it."

That woke her up. Celeste sat up, clutching the blanket around herself to preserve her modesty. "You mean…?"

"Yep. It's tradition."

"I'll be ready in fifteen minutes. I wouldn't dare break tradtition on a day as important as this." Celeste started to get out of bed and winced.

"What's wrong?" Zara asked immediately. "A vision?"

"No…" She blushed. "I'm a little sore… from last night."

"Sore?" Her eyes widened. "OHHHHHH…"

Celeste blushed even redder.

Her friend grinned at her. "Well?"

She stared at the floor. "Well, what?"

"Was he any good?"

"Zara! What kind of question is that!"

"A valid one!"

There was a long pause before Celeste mumbled her reply. "Yeah…"

Zara grinned broadly and thumped her best friend on the back. "I'm proud of you, Cel. Now get dressed. We have a mission of vast importance to attend to!"

"Think we should invite some of the others?" asked Celeste as she moved around the room, picking up her clothes.

"Sure, why not? They'd probably enjoy it."

One hour later found Zara, Celeste, Minako, Makoto, and some guy Mako had dragged with her, introduced to the rest of them as Brad, at the local karaoke bar.

"Remind me why it's so important that we do karaoke before a big battle?" Makoto was asking Zara in an undertone as Celeste paid the fee.

"It's tradition!" Zara explained. "It promotes unity, psyches up your energy and your mind, and it's just fun."

"Why am I here?" asked Brad.

"Because I want you here," said Makoto, snuggling up on his arm. "It's been a while since we last saw each other."

"Let me guess," whispered Celeste to Minako as all five of them headed for their room. "He looks just like her old boyfriend?"

"Bingo!"

Zara grabbed a microphone and looked at Celeste very seriously. "Ready, Celeste?"

Celeste also grabbed a microphone and took her place next to Zara, equally serious. "Ready, Zara."

Without further ado, their music began and the two girls began belting out at the top of their lungs, "YOU'VE GOT TO BELIEEEE-EEEEEVE, IN THE POOOOOWER OF LOVE! YOU'VE GOT TO BELIEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEVE, IN THE POWER OF LOOOOOOVE!"

The other three stared at the spectacle before them. Zara and Celeste even had choreography to this number.

Minako looked at Mako and her boyfriend and shrugged. "I suppose it's better than sitting around mulling over everything and getting depressed!" She cheered for the two girls and began clapping her hands in time to the music.

Makoto also shrugged and leaned against Brad. "As long as I don't have to do choreography…"

Brad, for his part, understood none of what was going on, but didn't complain. He wrapped his arms around Makoto's waist and watched the show.

* * *

The sunlight filtering in through Mamoru's curtains slowly coaxed him awake. A glance at the clock on the wall told him it was well after noon, a time he rarely let himself sleep to. His neck was decidedly stiff, but that's what comes from falling asleep on the couch. However, the snuggly little bunny curled up under his arm made it worthwhile.

She was fast asleep with her lips parted just slightly, a tiny trace of vanilla ice cream at the corner of her mouth. He chuckled softly, and gently tugged one of her ponytails free so that the silky strands covered her sleeping form like a golden blanket. He buried his fingers in the blond mass and leaned down, inhaling deeply near the nape of her neck, filling his lungs with her warm, sweet scent.

_Usako..._

_

* * *

_

Haruka had been awake for quite some time, busily preparing breakfast in the kitchen. She wasn't the most adept at the culinary arts, but she knew that Michiru loved it when she attempted to do something feminine.

After three tries, the crepes were perfect, the waffles weren't burnt, and the eggs didn't look like something Usagi had tried to make. She poured a tall glass of orange juice and finished the tray off with a tiny bud vase carrying a yellow carnation. Smiling proudly at her creation, she carried the tray into the next room.

Michiru's eyes fluttered open as Haruka sat on the side of the bed. She smiled as she saw the tray.

"Good morning," she greeted her aqua-haired lover as she helped to re-arrange the pillows. "I made breakfast."

"I see that." Her eyes scanned the offerings with pleasure before her brows furrowed delicately. "No napkins?"

Haruka winced. She always forgot something. And this time she had been so sure everything was perfect...

Michiru smiled gently. "It doesn't matter." She leaned forward and softly kissed the blond. "It just means I get to watch you do laundry later."

Haruka groaned as the other woman giggled mercilessly.

* * *

Hotaru hugged Small Lady tightly.

"You'll be all right, won't you, Hotaru-chan?" asked the pink haired girl, concern eloquent in her cinnamon eyes.

"Of course, Chibi-Usa-chan," she replied. "We have to grow up and be best friends, don't we?"

Chibi-Usa smiled and nodded. "Yes!" The two girls clasped hands. "We're always the best of friends, Hotaru-chan."

Hotaru left the young princess to find Setsuna out on a balcony, staring into the gardens below.

"Setsuna-san? Is it time to return?"

The time senshi started slightly, which surprised Hotaru. It wasn't easy to sneak up on Setsuna. "What is it?" she asked her.

"It's nothing," Setsuna said, hurriedly. "Yes, let's go back."

As they left the balcony, Hotaru managed a glimpse at the gardens and saw who it was Setsuna had been staring at, but it just confused her more.

It was only King Endymion.

* * *

"What's this?"

Pandora rolled her eyes. It had to be the fiftieth time Twila had asked that question. "It's something you eat."

The pink haired girl looked at the white round thing suspiciously. "It looks more like a ball... Are you sure?"

"YES. Will you stop asking me what everything is!"

"Hey, I can't help it if you're the only one with programmed knowledge of Earth!" She picked up another round white thing and prepared to take a bite.

"Wait, don't eat that!" exclaimed Marie, who had been examining stuffed plushies nearby with the rest of the Warriors.

"Why not?" asked Twila. "Pandora said it was food!"

"THAT is food," Marie explained, pointing at an array of pork buns a man was selling. "THAT is not!" She pointed at the stall next to the vendor's cart which held many round white soaps.

Twila sighed noisily. "This planet is confusing!"

The other Warriors laughed and shook their heads.

* * *

While Makoto said goodbye to Brad at the gates of the temple later that afternoon, Minako, Zara, and Celeste went inside. Rei, in her priestess robes, was just exiting the fire room, looking exhausted.

"Rei!" exclaimed Minako. "Have you been at the fire all day? That's not good for you! You'll wear yourself out right before the battle!"

"I'm fine," said Rei. "I just need to rest for a little while and there's plenty of time before everyone is due back here."

"Um..." said Zara. "Are the Starlights around?"

Minako smirked, but Rei elbowed her in the side. "You just missed them. They asked if they could use one of the larger rooms to meditate. They're probably there now."

"Meditate?"

It was at that moment, loud rock music began blaring from the other end of the temple. All four girls winced slightly.

"I suppose this is how they meditate..." said Celeste.

Rei groaned and began moving off down the hall. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go shove a pillow through my ears and take a nap."

Makoto entered the temple just then and furrowed her brow. "What the hell is that racket?"

"Shhh," said Minako. "The Starlights are meditating."

"Huh?"

The three girls laughed. Minako walked Makoto back outside to explain where she wouldn't have to yell.

Celeste turned to Zara. "Are you going to go listen to them?"

"Why?"

She sobered for a moment. "Because... you may not get another chance."

She paused. "You're right." Smiling, she gestured toward the other end of the temple. "Coming?"

"You bet." But she hesitated. "Only if you conjure up some earplugs."

"Done and done."

To be continued…

Author's Note: Sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter up! Work and college have eaten my life! Fanime is in two weeks and I don't even have my new cosplay done! AUGH! Anyway, I'll try and write more soon! Thank you to all the patient people who waited for this chapter!


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